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Revival Addresses 



Revival Addresses 



By 
STEVE BURKE 




NEW YORK AND CHICAGO 

The Revell Company Press 
191 1 



I* 



Copyright, 191 1, by 
STEVE BURKE 



ICU283513. 



4 



Preface 

After much persuasion by many friends, I 
have consented to the publication of these 
evangelistic addresses. They have been de- 
livered in crowded tabernacles, and have been 
the means of leading many souls from darkness 
into light. 

They are given practically as I spoke them, 
and I pray they will be a means of doing great 
good. 

Steve Burke. 



Contents 

I. Jesus the Light of the World . 9 

II. How to Get Acquainted with 

Jesus 26 

III. 6i Count the Cost " . .49 
IY. The Fool . 73 
Y. i l Forsaken and Alone n . . 112 
YI. l l I Have Fought ^ Good Fight ' J 135 

VII. ' { What Must I Do to be Saved } } 164 

VIII. " Shorn Locks" .... 194 

IX. Halting 219 

X. " The Way of Transgressors is 

Hard" 241 



Revival Addresses 



Jesus the Light of the World 

11 Then spake Jesus unto them saying, I am the light of 
the world ; he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, 
but shall have the light of life. ' ' — St. John viii. 12. 

In Rome in the beginning of the Christian 
era you could buy a man for ninety dollars. 
To-day you cannot buy a man there for ninety 
millions of dollars. What produced all that 
change ? Jesus the light of the world ; His 
Gospel reached Rome. 

Plato, the king of philosophers, was one time 
himself offered for a slave. When Demos- 
thenes was pronouncing his eloquent oratories in 
Athens, you could at that time buy a man for 
thirty dollars ; but to-day you cannot buy a man 
in Athens for thirty millions of dollars. What 
produced that change ? Jesus the light of the 
world. The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ 
reached Greece. 

About sixty years ago you could buy a man 
in the Fiji Islands for a musket, and that 
musket costing seven dollars and fifty cents ; 

9 



io Revival Addresses 

but to-day you cannot buy a man in the Fiji 
Islands for seven million five hundred thousand 
dollars ; in fact you cannot buy a man there at 
all. What produced all that change? Jesus 
the light of the world. The Gospel of Jesus 
reached the Fiji Islands. 

Now I just mention these facts to show you 
briefly what Jesus has done and can do for the 
nations. Let us consider our theme from an- 
other standpoint. The moral and intellectual 
part of man must have a teacher; this was 
declared by Locke, who for more than one hun- 
dred years has been a recognized authority on 
the human understanding. 

We all have our ideal and grow in love 
towards that ideal every day. This applies to 
you and to me, in business, in politics and in 
every-day life. 

For the first fifty years after the American 
Eevolution, George Washington was called the 
proper ideal for the American mind; from 
hearthstone and from schoolroom and from 
earliest childhood to mental manhood we form 
our ideals. George Washington, however, 
proved to be an improper ideal for the Ameri- 
can mind. Why? Because George Washing- 
ton held slaves, and believed in holding slaves, 
and that idea proved to be wrong, and it 
finally culminated in the surrender of Lee at 
Appomattox. 



Jesus the Light of the World 1 1 



l o 



Then again who shall be our teacher ? Plato 
the king of philosophers, won't do. Why ? Be 
cause Plato believed in numerous wives, and in 
suicide in time of great distress. Pliny and 
others representing various schools of phi- 
losophy believed the same. Socrates and Aris- 
totle accepted similar views, and for five 
centuries before the Christian era this whole 
world was wrapped in gloom and despair, even 
in the face of the teachings of these great 
philosophers. 

Then again I ask, who shall be this teacher ? 
Listen ! After Julian and St. Just and Voltaire 
have done their best, or their worst, others have 
introduced numerous philosophies, but after 
all, this world is now settling down to one firm 
conclusion, and that is, that this old book con- 
tains the name of that teacher. His name is 
the Lord Jesus Christ, the light of the world. 

You take the teachings of Jesus out of the 
hearts and minds of the lawmakers of our 
country, and in two generations this world 
would sink back to the dark ages. 

Empires have been swept away like autumn 
leaves before a wintry gale. Battles have been 
fought that have changed the destiny of con- 
tinents. Inventions discovered that have rev- 
olutionized the world. Principles promulgated 
that have changed the form of governments. 
But in the midst of it all, in the midst of blood 



12 Revival Addresses 

and tears and oppression there has come 
through it all, Jesus the light of the world, 
heralded by the angel with healing in His wings, 
saying, " Peace on earth and good- will towards 
men." 

Millions have passed away in the trackless 
forest, on mountain top, behind prison bars, in 
battle-fields, and on wintry seas ; and how often 
have been seen the outstretched hand, and the 
ashen face, and have been heard the agonizing 
voice crying, " What must I do to be saved ? ', 
Then comes the answer from pulpit, from Sun- 
day-school teacher, from mother and from God, 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou 
shalt be saved." 

Now come with me and let us go back 
yonder to the manger. There we find the 
most conspicuous character in history appears 
upon the platform of earthly life; a finger 
diamonded with starry light points Him out 
from Bethlehem skies. It is said to be a finger 
of prophecy, a finger of genealogy, a finger of 
events pointing out Jesus in the manger. Con- 
fucianists can get along without Confucius, 
Mohammedans without Mohammed ; Mormon- 
ism can get along without Joe Smith, but the 
religion of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot get 
along without Jesus. He is the great voice of 
all music ; the graceful lines in all sculpture ; 
the most exquisite minglings of lights and 



Jesus the Light of the World 13 

shades in all paintings ; the acme of all 
climaxes ; the dome of all cathedral grandeur 
and the peroration of all splendid language. 
We have Reuben, Raphael and Hichael Angelo, 
artistic giants ; we have Isaiah, the prophetic 
giant ; Paul, the apostolic giant ; cherubim, 
seraphim, archangel, celestial giants ; but they 
have all come together and in one voice pro- 
nounced Jesus the light of the world, and they 
have all fallen far short of His glory. I will 
now state here that Jesus is the light of the 
Gospel. Without Jesus we have no Gospel. 

There are so many books on homiletics issued 
and so much discussion of theology that lay- 
men as well as preachers have made up their 
minds that they know just about when a sermon 
is preached correctly. Some will say unless 
you have a frequent mention of Jesus as a cure 
for all ills and evil, individual, financial and 
national, that no sermon is preached correctly ; 
while others will say unless you have a frequent 
mention of purification, sanctification, covenant 
of works and of grace that no sermon is 
preached correctly ; while others will say un- 
less you have a frequent mention of water, 
water, water, there is no Gospel, and all be- 
come profoundly suspicious of about the same 
thing couched in different phraseology. After 
all, I must say, we know very little about 
preaching. "We are all very poor preachers at 



14 Revival Addresses 

best. When we get up our firstly, secondly, 
thirdly, and lastly, winduply and quitly, we 
imagine we have preached a great sermon. 

Did you ever look over the Sermon on the 
Mount? "When Jesus preached that sermon 
He threw out more than one hundred different 
points or propositions and said, " Take that." 
Jesus was a preacher; you can pick flaws in 
my ministry but I defy the whole world to 
pick a flaw in the ministry of Jesus. Did you 
ever notice how practical Jesus was in His 
preaching and teaching ? Did you ever notice 
how He hangs truth all around us ? When we 
look at the grain of sand we find He hangs a 
truth there ; when we look at the pebble we 
find He hangs truth there. Look at the salt — 
He hangs truth there. Look at the blade of 
grass — He swings truth there. Look at the 
little flower that blooms at our feet — we find 
He hangs a truth there. Still not satisfied, He 
goes to the barn-yard, and finds the barn-yard 
fowl and swings truth there. He then leaps 
to the trees, finds the little birds and swings 
truth there — "They have nests." He is still 
not satisfied; He goes to the mountains; He 
finds the foxes — " They have holes " — and He 
swings a truth there. He then goes to the 
valley; He finds the lily — "They toil not, 
neither do they spin" — and He hangs a truth 
there. He then goes to the sower, "whq 



Jesus the Light of the World 15 

goes forth to sow," and hangs a truth there. 
He goes to the reaper and hangs truth there. 
He goes to the stars and hangs truth there. 
He leaps to the moon and grasps her by her 
silvery bit and swings truth there. He leaps 
to the sun and grasps him by his golden bit 
and swings truth there. He goes to the great 
ocean with its mighty waves and chainless 
might and hangs a truth there. Everywhere 
we look we find His mighty truths ; therefore 
we must call Him a great preacher. 

I find that Shakespeare used more than fifteen 
thousand words in his dramatic plays. Milton 
used more than eight thousand words in his 
poetic works, and Euf us Choate used more than 
eleven thousand words in his legal practice. 
While we as ministers of the Gospel often use 
less than one thousand words in preaching 
about " Jesus the light of the world," Jesus, 
the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Alpha 
and the Omega ; and from a literary standpoint 
that makes us appear mighty stupid. I believe 
a man to preach the Gospel ought to be quali- 
fied — eminently qualified. I think he ought 
to be capable to give instructions and teach. 
But while I believe that, I find there is still a 
higher qualification. Jesus said, " Neverthe- 
less I tell you the truth ; it is expedient for you 
that I go away ; for if I go not away, the Com- 
forter will not come unto you ; but if I depart, 



16 Revival Addresses 

I will send Him unto you." And when that 
Comforter, the Holy Ghost, comes upon the 
preacher and accompanies the word, it makes 
no difference if the preacher speaks in foreign 
accent, or without rhetorical construction, some- 
body through that preaching must tremble. 
What we need above all things is Holy Ghost 
preachers. Some years ago, I read a little 
article about one of Mr. Moody's experiences. 
I don't vouch for the truth of it, but I give it 
just as I read it from a paper. Years ago Mr. 
Moody held a revival in Chicago. He preached 
for a week or so to a large audience but not a 
single move. He then got a great divine who 
was a noted orator to preach several nights and 
still not a move, but the people kept attending. 
He then got another great speaker and still no 
move. There was a blacksmith attending the 
services who had been converted a few years 
before that, and was doing a good work among 
the labouring people as an exhorter. Mr. 
Moody decided he would get the blacksmith to 
speak for him one night, and went to him mak- 
ing his wants known. The blacksmith said, 
" Why, Mr. Moody, I can't do that." " Why ? " 
" Because I am uneducated and I can't stand up 
before this intelligent people and talk." Mr. 
Moody said, " We have never led any souls to 
Christ in this meeting, have we ? " " No." 
" Well, you can't do any worse than that, can 



Jesus the Light of the World 17 

you ? " So the blacksmith said, " Well, I will 
try it." That night he got up and took his 
text and began to stammer and to halt and to 
stumble, got mixed up and confused, mispro- 
nounced and made a wholesale balk of it. 
Finally he said, " Oh, people, I can't preach, 
but, bless God, I can testify. Come and go 
with me. Some years ago, I was a poor, 
degraded sot, steeped in sin and disgrace, often 
found in the gutter and sometimes in jail. I 
want you to walk by my side down yonder in 
the slum part of this city to that little filthy 
hovel. Look at me reeling towards that miser- 
able place. Look yonder in the door at that 
poor woman in that soiled and tattered dress. 
Look at those pale cheeks. See her wring her 
hands and moan while the tears of despair flow 
down her cheeks. Look yonder, at those poor 5 
ragged children running and hiding from their 
drunken and beastly father. Inside that home 
was poverty of the most sickening type. That 
was not a home ; it was a miserable place where 
the inmates barely existed. But one day a 
power seized me, and called me to a better life. 
For a time I tried to fight that power, but, 
bless God, at last I yielded and then I told Jesus 
I would follow Him. I went to the cabin and 
had wife find the old Bible. I read a chapter 
and we sang a song and then I established a 
family altar. People, I began to prosper. I 



1 8 Revival Addresses 

sang the songs of Zion as I pounded the iron. 
Finally, I built a beautiful cottage home in a 
good neighbourhood. Now, folks, come and go 
home with me. Look yonder ; see that woman 
with the rosy cheeks and clothed in a beautiful 
new dress ; that is my wife, the same woman ; 
see her smile and hear her say, ' Children, 
yonder comes your papa.' Watch them runup 
the street to meet me crying with joy, 6 Papa, 
papa, papa.' I tell you, people, my home is a 
little heaven on earth, all caused by letting 
Jesus come into my life. He lighted up my 
soul. He lighted up my home. Oh, bless God, 
I am so happy. Now, you people, if any of 
you want the same Jesus in your life and in 
your home just come up here and shake hands 
with me." Mr. Moody said he thought men 
and women of all classes would run over each 
other to get to that blacksmith, and many with 
tears in their eyes said, " We want that same 
Jesus in our lives." 

He said he then found out how very simple 
the Gospel was, and the power of the Holy 
Spirit. I tell you people we really need more 
Holy Ghost preachers. 

It is said the French navy has nineteen 
flags, and those nineteen flags can be woven 
into sixty-six thousand different combinations ; 
and just think of the infinite combinations and 
everlasting varieties into which you can weave 



Jesus the Light of the World ] 9 

the twenty-six letters of the English alphabet in 
speaking of " Jesus the light of the world." 

I have nothing to say against schools of 
theology, for they are doing great good ; but 
I have noticed many theological students for- 
ever ruined, and fully incapacitated for great 
work, because they have attempted to adopt 
the methods and styles of others, and they go 
forth as so many automatic machines, void of 
power and influence. 

When God lays His hand on a man and says, 
" Go preach," man had better be careful in try- 
ing to remould that man. Let every man be 
his own architect as to the way a sermon 
should be preached; let him be led by the 
Spirit ; let him go to God, through Jesus the 
light of the world, for that help that always 
brings results. 

We have too many people who, it seems, 
care little about leading souls to Christ ; their 
only thought is to become great preachers. If 
we would only reverse that and thirst for souls 
and try to win souls and quit dreaming so much 
about our preaching we would undoubtedly do 
a greater work. 

It is my daily prayer to become a great soul 
winner. If I can win souls to Christ, I don't 
care whether I can preach or not. I don't care 
to be a great preacher, but I do thirst to be a 
great soul winner. 



20 Revival Addresses 

It is not the great spellbinding orators who 
are doing the work for Jesus, but those who 
are consecrated and filled with the old time 
power. Too many depend on intellect and 
knowledge of science and literature to hold the 
people, but if you want to hold an audience 
close to you and get their full attention, and so 
eager to hear you that they breathe carefully, 
just get close to Jesus and the Spirit will come 
upon you, and people will want to hear you. 

The time has come when a man can preach 
Jesus in his own way, alone, and succeed. 
God calls all men to go forth in their own 
identity. Jonathan Edwards had his peculiar 
style, different from all mankind, and he did a 
great work. Bunyan had his style. George 
Whitefield his, and he did a wonderful work. 
Edward Payton was sick and feeble and failing 
and slowly dying, and could only weep out his 
texts, but he swept thousands to Christ. Mr. 
Moody had his plain, blunt style, different from 
others, and did a powerful work. Sam P. 
Jones, with a tongue as sharp as a two-edged 
sword, also did his great work. Talmage and 
Beecher and Knox and Spurgeon all did their 
great work, and every one distinctly different 
from the others. Not because of their great 
mental faculty but because they allowed Jesus 
to lead, and they looked to no man for guid- 
ance or example, were they enabled to impart 



Jesus the Light of the World 21 

spiritual help to others ; they saw in Jesus the 
light of the world, and by following Him they 
got the "light of life." Oh, me, such themes, 
such deep awakenings for the soul when we get 
close to " Jesus the light of the world." Deeper 
than the ocean, fresher than the mountain 
springs, brighter than the sunlight, sweeter 
than a harp, and more fragrant than the lily 
are all the beautiful halos surrounding the 
story of Jesus the light of the world. 

When I think of His birth, when I think of 
His being raised in such obscurity, when I think 
of His going out to teach, of His meekness, His 
gentleness, His simplicity, and yet His wisdom ; 
when I see His miracles and read His parables, 
and when I find He is just as happy dealing 
with one lonely individual as though He were 
dealing with thousands, I make up my mind 
Jesus is "Wonderful," and I get more light in 
my soul. I then follow Him through His 
trials, His sufferings in Gethsemane, and up 
Golgotha to His death on the cross. My God, 
wake up my sleepy soul, and let me cry until 
all the nations can hear, " Jesus the light of the 
world, Jesus the light of my life." If you get 
short of themes just turn to Jesus ; then you 
find an inexhaustible fountain. 

When you hear a man abusing denomina- 
tions other than his own, don't feel offended, 
but just feel sorry for him because he doesn't 



22 Revival Addresses 

know Jesus. Bless God, if we follow after 
Him He becomes the light of life, then we can 
talk about Jesus and His love. Have you 
love ? Look to Jesus the fountain of love. Do 
you love the Church ? It is because Jesus died 
for it. We have many people in the world 
who think they are good enough out of the 
Church, but Jesus died for it and it is good 
enough for you. Have you patience ? Look to 
Jesus. Have you faith ? Look to Jesus, the 
author and finisher of our faith. I am often 
surprised at our little faith. I love a childlike 
faith. Nothing scientific about faith because 
we often find as much faith in the illiterate as 
you find in a Gladstone. Reading books on 
faith only tends to muddle us; let us have 
simple, childlike faith in God. I want to re- 
late a little circumstance that occurred in one 
of my meetings years ago in Texas. Attending 
that meeting was a poor crippled widow, one 
of her lower limbs gone. Her earthly posses- 
sions were three little children, one old gray 
horse and hack, and one cow. This widow 
rented land and made her living by farming. 
Owing to her being so poor and crippled her 
neighbours of course gave her all the advan- 
tages they could. At one of our day services, 
we had a testimony meeting, and she finally 
arose and balancing herself on her crutches, 
spoke about as follows : " Brother Burke, I 



Jesus the Light of the World 23 

want to testify ; I want to tell you how good 
God is to me. Brother Burke, I have one cow, 
and owing to the fact I am so poor the most of 
the neighbours gave their consent for my cow 
to run in the lanes, to get what little picking 
she could, as I am not able to rent a pasture for 
her. I have to farm the best I can to try to 
make a living; yesterday evening, just before 
sundown, my three little children and I quit 
picking cotton and went to the house to get 
ready to come out to church. When we got to 
the house one of my neighbours, and a mighty 
wicked man, was there with a double-barrel 
shotgun, and he began to abuse me and to 
curse me, and to call me all kinds of vile 
names, because my cow had gotten into his 
cotton patch. I stood there on my crutches 
wondering how any man could ever find it in 
his heart to curse and abuse a crippled and 
helpless widow. He said he had his gun 
loaded with buckshot and was on his way to 
the cotton patch to kill her ; that he had the 
advantage of me ; he was rich and I was poor ; 
besides, it was against the law for cows to run 
out, and I might do what I pleased, but he was 
going to shoot that cow ; he went away cursing 
and swearing. I didn't say a word, but went 
into the house and my little children followed 
me. Brother Burke, I didn't know what else 
to do, so I told one of my children to hand me 



24 Revival Addresses 

the Bible. I sat there and turned through its 
pages wondering where I would read ; finally I 
told the children I would repeat the twenty- 
third Psalm," and here she repeated it. " ' The 
Lord is my Shepherd ; I shall not want. He 
maketh me to lie down in green pastures : He 
leadeth me beside the still waters. He re- 
storeth my soul : He leadeth me in the paths 
of righteousness for His name's sake. Yea, 
though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil : for Thou 
art with me ; Thy rod and Thy staff they com- 
fort me. Thou preparest a table before me in 
the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest 
my head with oil ; my cup runneth over. 
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all 
the days of my life : and I will dwell in the 
house of the Lord forever.' I then said to my 
little children, ' Let us kneel and pray,' and as 
near as I can think I prayed about as follows : 
i Almighty God our Father, we call upon Thee. 
Thou hast promised to help in time of need. 
Thou art the Shepherd ; we are Thy sheep, and 
we come to Thee in deepest distress. Dear 
Father, put it in the heart of that wicked man 
not to kill my cow. O Father ! I cry in the 
name of my poor helpless children. Thou 
knowest, Father, if that cow is killed that my 
children must suffer, because all we have to 
eat, Lord, is bread and milk and butter ; and, 






Jesus the Light of the World 25 

Lord, how can my little children live if the 
milk and butter are taken? Father, please 
hear my cry — you have promised to hear the 
widow's cry — and put it in the heart of that 
cruel man to go around my cow and drive her 
out and let her come home. Jesus, hear me ; 
Thou canst soften the heart of that man, and 
for the sake of my children have him drive 
my cow home.' Brother Burke, I don't know 
just how long I prayed, but I know this, when 
I said ' Amen,' my cow bawled at my gate. 
Then, people, I bawled." 



II 

How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 

"That I may know Him, and the power of His resur- 
rection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made 
conformable unto His death. M — Philippians iii. 10. 

Heee Paul confesses a fact that has deeply- 
impressed me. Paul realized that if ever he 
expected to become a power for Jesus he must 
know Him. 

Our power for Jesus comes from our real 
knowledge of Him. Not what is termed a 
literal knowledge as much as a sympathetic 
knowledge, for Paul wanted to understand the 
power of His resurrection, and in order to get 
close to Him he wanted to reach that state of 
mind where he could feel His sufferings. 

Our love of our avocations comes from our 
knowledge of that avocation or calling. No 
man can succeed as a merchant unless he un- 
derstands and loves his business. The same 
applies in law, and in the practice of medicine, 
and in preaching. The more we know about 
our calling the better we love it, and if we 
love the ministry we must know Jesus. 

"We learn to love George Washington by 
associating with him in history ; we must fol- 

,26 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 27 

low him step by step from the time he cut that 
cherry tree until we see him take his seat as 
the first President, and meriting the designa- 
tion of " The Father of our Country." It is 
then every loyal American citizen says, " I love 
George Wa, hington." 

If we would love a Lee, we must study him 
and find out the pure motives that prompted 
him to action in the cause of the Southern 
Confederacy ; and likewise we must study and 
associate with a Grant if we would know 
him sympathetically. To appreciate the heroes 
of the Alamo we must study them and enter 
into the cause that induced them to lay down 
their lives for grand old Texas. Also if we 
would know Jesus we must walk with Him, 
become His companion, and learn the great 
motive that prompted Him to look down from 
heaven upon a poor sin-cursed people and say, 
" Here am I, send me." 

We are apt to pass an opinion on every indi- 
vidual we meet. No sooner do we look into 
the face of any man than an opinion of that 
man flashes into our mind. It is said that the 
first opinion of any man is usually the best, 
but it turns out occasionally that our first opin- 
ion is not correct. There have been instances 
when individuals were disliked by us and their 
very presence repelled us, and yet we have 
been made to confess we were wrong, and 



28 Revival Addresses 

have been led to love them deeply. I will 
cite one instance in my own experience. In an 
early day, in the Indian country, I met a man 
whose very presence was a source of worry and 
irritation to me. I formed an innate hatred for 
the man without any cause, yet he seemed in 
spite of every rebuff I gave him to love me. I 
have often said, " I wish he would never come 
about me ; I cannot stand him." But on one oc- 
casion in a little frontier hotel about midnight a 
band of about a dozen drunken Indians con- 
cocted a plan to go to my room up-stairs and 
murder me ; one of my friends found it out and 
got in front of them to prevent their going up 
to my room, but they insisted. This friend 
called out to me, " Burke, here are a lot of In- 
dians, well armed, who are drunk, and they say 
they are going to kill you." 

There were several in that hotel that night, 
and every fellow began in his own way to hide ; 
a few crawled through the windows to the 
roof of the porch. I found that the house was 
being guarded to prevent my escape, so I was 
forced to face the music. I only had a six- 
shooter, and I took that and went to the head 
of the stairs and I said, "Fisher, you tell those 
Indians that 1 am armed and that I am going 
to kill the first man that shows his head around 
the bend of the stairs." He told them, but 
still they pushed on, but only gaining a step 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 29 

now and then because of his efforts to restrain 
them ; about this tune I looked to my left and 
there stood that objectionable man by my side. 
I saw he had a six-shooter in his hand, and I 

said, " O G , what are you doing here ? " 

And he said, " I am here to die with you ; when 
those Indians walk over your dead body they 
will have to walk over mine too. Fisher, tell 
those Indians there are two of us armed here 
now and we are here to kilL" His voice and 
his threat saved me — the Indians turned and 
left. 

I didn't know him. After that I loved him 
better than any man on earth. If I had not 
loved him I would have been one of the most 
ungrateful cowards living, and I want to re- 
peat, the reason every soul under the sound of 
my voice is not in the deepest love with Jesus 
is because you don't know Him, or if you do 
know Him and you don't love Him and serve 
Him it is because youare an ungrateful coward. 

In order to get acquainted with Jesus I love 
to go to the manger. In reading the story, I 
find God is no respecter of persons, for in the 
birth of Christ He informs the wise and He 
also informs the poor ignorant shepherds. I 
can hear those wise men saying, " Where is He 
that is born King of the Jews ? For we have 
seen His star in the east, and are come to 
worship Him." No wonder those wise men 



30 Revival Addresses 

rejoiced and fell down and worshipped Him, 
and offered their treasures and presented unto 
Him gifts, gold, and frankincense and myrrh. 
No doubt those wise men were rich ; showing 
God extends His blessings to the wise, the rich 
and the poor, emphasizing the thought " Who- 
soever will." Then the great reason why those 
wise men rejoiced was they knew Him ; and, 
bless God, we can all know Him if we seek to 
get acquainted with Him. 

God loves listening ears and receptive hearts. 
In my work as an evangelist I find two classes 
of listeners ; one class listens to be entertained, 
and with no desire of being benefited, and 
close their hearts to every appeal ; while an- 
other class listens with receptive hearts, and 
goes away greatly benefited; God will bless 
such people and will fill their hearts with ex- 
ceeding great joy. 

Those poor shepherds heard with gladness 
the words spoken by angels, " Glory to God in 
the highest, and on earth peace, good will 
towards men." After debating the matter 
among themselves, " They come with haste and 
found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying 
in the manger." Bless God they didn't only 
hear and believe, but they made haste to find 
Jesus. They were prompt and God always 
loves prompt obedience. 

I love to think of Jesus at the age of twelve, 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 31 

" sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hear- 
ing them, and asking them questions, and all 
that heard Him were astonished at His under- 
standing and answers." I love to think of the 
wisdom of His answer to His mother, " Wist ye 
not that I must be about My Father's business ? " 
It always does my soul good to see children 
about their father's business. 

If you notice, Mr. Hobbs gives special atten- 
tion to the children. He always organizes a 
big junior choir and not only teaches them to 
sing, but also instructs them about Jesus, and 
I am often made to wonder at their understand- 
ing. I have seen as many as twenty-five per- 
sonal workers in a junior choir, aiding and in- 
structing and praying for their playmates, and 
they never stop, but continue this work from 
night to night until the last junior has accepted 
Christ. They are about their Father's busi- 
ness. 

When we were at Greenwood, Ark., in a re- 
vival, the juniors worked and prayed until the 
last one had accepted Christ. One night Mr. 
Hobbs was conducting a testimony meeting, 
when a little girl about ten years old got up 
and said with a strong, clear voice, enabling 
every soul in the large hall to hear her dis- 
tinctly, " Brother Hobbs, I want to thank God 
we have no heathens in the junior choir." 

I also love to think of Jesus as a carpenter. 



32 Revival Addresses 

I cannot begin to imagine Him anything but 
very industrious. I see Him making the differ- 
ent simple things they used in those days. I 
don't think in His shop you would have found 
a very large kit of tools but something like a 
plane, the adz, drawing-knife, auger, etc. He 
may have made flour bins, and may have made 
the ox yoke, but it is immaterial what His duties 
were ; I know they were well performed. 

One day I see Him put every tool in its place ; 
He takes off His apron, folds it up and puts 
it away. Then He walks out and tossing His 
hair back looks towards heaven. I call out, 
"What is the matter, Jesus?" "I must be 
about My Father's business. The time has 
come that I must go out to teach the plan of 
redemption and to call men to repentance. 1 
know I have a hard battle before Me. I see 
scoffs, privations and oppositions, and in the 
end a Gethsemane ; I see Golgotha and the 
cross — I see My bleeding brow, and blood 
oozing from many a cruel stripe on this body, 
but I must go." 

I see Him when He goes to John to be bap- 
tized and John cries out, " Behold the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sins of the world." 
John knew him. And I see Him when He is 
baptized, and the Spirit descending in the form 
of a dove and lighting upon Him. Listen ; I 
hear God speak, " This is My beloved Son in 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 33 

whom I am well pleased," and I am led to say, 
" Amen." Father, if you are well pleased, then 
why should not all be well pleased ? I think 
when the God of heaven says He is well pleased, 
then it is time for us to want to seek the cause 
of the pleasure of the Father in Jesus ; then like 
Paul let us cry out, " That I may know Him." 

Oh, me ! how empty some people are when it 
comes to a real knowledge of Jesus, and they 
know so little that they almost offer an apology 
when they speak of belonging to the church. 
If they only knew Jesus they would be proud 
to confess Him. 

I love to study Jesus' character. When I 
begin to know how strong Jesus was, I am 
made stronger myself. Too many people im- 
agine Jesus effeminate; that is because they 
don't know Him. 

I once met a man in the West called trifling 
John. John was to all a very strange being. 
He stood at least six feet three inches, and was, 
physically, almost a giant. He was a man with 
but few words, and was a regular sponge. The 
question was often asked, How does big trifling 
John live ; where does he eat, sleep, etc. ? 
There was one thing, however, that I noticed ; 
with all his trifling he had a rather strong face, 
and seemed to be above the average in intelli- 
gence, but he was apparently very lazy, and his 
chief ambition was to get a drink at some other 



34 Revival Addresses 

fellow's expense. So we all passed John up 
like we would a dead stump ; we got to the 
place we didn't even recognize him. But let 
me take you back to one afternoon when all 
was rather quiet in that wild west town. Look 
yonder ! I see coming down the street a span 
of horses in full speed hitched to a buggy, and 
in that buggy, a little girl about nine years old. 
Her mother had stepped out of the buggy up 
the street, and left the horses to be held by the 
child. They became frightened and ran away. 
The child was screaming, which only frightened 
the horses the more. I could see if I ran in 
ahead of the horses they might run into some 
wagons hitched to the racks and I knew that if 
they turned their course it meant sure death 
for the little girl, and I, like the others, stood 
there with mouth open. The father of the 
child ran out of his store just as the team was 
passing and cried, " My God, my God, my child 
will be killed." But look down yonder close 
to the corner ; what do I see ? Why, it is big 
trifling John leaping across that street like a 
maddened beast ; as the horses sped by he 
makes one mighty spring and with that strong 
right hand he grasps the bit of the nearest 
horse. Did he turn loose? No indeed; he 
hung on. The horses reared and plunged and 
circled and stopped close to the sidewalk. Lov- 
ing hands were there to lift the child from 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 35 

the buggy, and then we rushed to big John, 
for some one cried, "Big John is fainting." 
A hoof of one of the horses had cut an ugly 
gash on his head; the blood was spurting 
and he had lost consciousness. Some of us 
picked him up and tenderly carried him to the 
sidewalk, bathed his face and head and in a 
little bit he looked around and smiled, and said, 
" Boys, did I save the child ? " " Yes, John, 
you saved the child." "Well, thank God you 
can say trifling John has done some good." 

Ah, people, we didn't know him. The brav- 
est man in that frontier town and we didn't 
know it. The truth was, big John had been 
discouraged, and it took danger to arouse his 
sleeping soul. 

We have many just like big John when it 
comes to a spiritual life. Spiritually they are 
trifling and lazy and spongers. They sponge on 
their neighbours to teach their children. They 
depend on others to organize the churches and 
the Sunday-schools and to push their children 
into a better life, while they mope around and 
do nothing. 

It may be true of you ; we may have become 
discouraged and pass you by as we would drift- 
wood ; but still if you could be awakened from 
your sleep, I believe a hero would come forth. 
Almighty God, turn on the light and wake up 
trifling, lazy, dead men. 



36 Revival Addresses 

The father of the child cared for John and 
gave him a position in his store, and John pros- 
pered, quit drinking, and the last time I heard 
from him he was a successful travelling man, 
"We all loved John after we learned to know 
the good that was in him. "We loved him be- 
cause he was brave. 

I tell you we love strong characters. The 
most worthless waif in the city does that ; and 
I find in walking with Jesus that He is a strong 
character. Did you ever follow Him through 
His fasting and in your mind try to imagine 
His hunger after forty days and forty nights, 
for the Word says He was " an hungered " ? 
And when the tempter came to Him, and said, 
" If Thou be the Son of God, command that 
these stones be turned to bread. But He 
answered and said, It is written, Man shall not 
live by bread alone, but by every word that 
proceedeth out of the mouth of God." No 
man can keep from admiring His answer. He 
did not say He would or would not, but just 
gave him the Word of God and that settled 
Satan. If you will notice in reading the Word, 
if you want Satan to shut up, just quote Scrip- 
ture to him. 

Jesus was tempted for our special benefit. 
In this temptation we cannot help but feel 
proud of Jesus because we find Jesus is not 
cheap. We cannot admire a cheap man. Look 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 37 

at the final temptation. Listen : " Again, the 
devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high 
mountain, sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the 
world, and the glory of them ; and saith unto 
Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou 
wilt fall down and worship me. Then said 
Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan : for it 
is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy 
God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Jesus 
was too high priced for Satan, and he sneaked 
away. Thank God, Jesus could not be shaken 
by price, and I am proud to call Him my ideal 
because I am following the most remarkable 
being that ever walked on this earth. 

It is natural for us to select our ideal from 
among the great generals. Some admire Hanni- 
bal. Some select as their ideal a Napoleon. 
Others prefer Robert E. Lee, while others ad- 
mire Grant. "We all have our political ideals. 
Some a Roosevelt, some a Taft, others a Bryan, 
or a Folk. Also in commerce we select our 
ideals. That is perfectly natural, and I call it 
right. Also, if we have within us good princi- 
ples we must have our moral or spiritual ideal, 
and in selecting that ideal it is our duty to select 
the strongest, the purest, the bravest, the no- 
blest, and the best. 

The devil has persuaded the ignorant and 
the weak to believe that to follow Jesus is 
weak and effeminate, and millions are perishing 



38 Revival Addresses 

because they are afraid it will show weak- 
ness in them to confess Jesus is their ideal. 
But, bless God, I am proud to call Jesus my 
ideal because He is the strongest character 
in the world's history. Satan offered Him 
the whole world to serve him, and He is un- 
moved. 

The man who has no moral ideal is only re- 
moved from the beast through mind and speech ; 
morally he is a leper ; and every one who asso- 
ciates with him awakes to find he has the same 
loathsome malady. 

I love to walk with Jesus, because the more 
I keep company with Him the more I find that 
the most immoral degenerate respects me. 
The closer I get to Jesus the stronger I get, 
the more active my mind and the more positive 
my temperament. I love to follow Jesus also 
because of His superior wisdom. When I read 
the Sermon on the Mount, I am charmed with 
His superior wisdom. All students confess that 
the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest piece 
of literature the world has ever known. When 
I read that sermon I am impressed that JSTico- 
demus was right when he came to Jesus by 
night and said unto Him, " Rabbi, we know that 
Thou art a teacher come from God ; for no 
man can do these miracles that Thou doest, 
except God be with him." Again in walking 
with Jesus, I have to love Him because of His 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 39 

meekness. I find His demands are simple. 
His invitations are courteous. 

We notice in our dealings with men that the 
greater and wiser the individual the easier he 
is approached. The more love and refinement 
we have the more reasonable we are in our de- 
mands. Knowledge of Christ takes the ego- 
tism out of us. You never in your life saw a 
man who knew and loved Jesus who was not 
reasonable, courteous and kind. In other words, 
it takes knowledge of Jesus, and the witness 
of the Spirit to make a perfect gentleman or a 
perfect lady ; and without that knowledge, no 
man or woman has the proper polish. Educa- 
tion may polish our tongue in using pure Eng- 
lish but it doesn't polish the heart, thus ena- 
bling us to use " a soft tongue that breaketh 
the bone." 

Egotism and self-importance come from the 
devil ; you can see the egotism of Satan when 
he says, " If Thou wilt fall down and worship 
me." Oh, me ! the self-importance of the devil. 

Did you ever note the difference in an invi- 
tation of Jesus and that of Satan? Satan 
says, " Fall down and worship me," but now let 
us see how Jesus invites. " And Jesus, walk- 
ing by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, 
Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, 
casting a net into the sea : for they were fishers. 
And He saith unto them, Follow Me and I will 



40 Revival Addresses 

make you fishers of men. And they straight- 
way left their nets, and followed Him. And 
going thence, He saw two other brethren, 
James the son of Zebedee, and John his 
brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, 
mending their nets ; and He called them. 
And they immediately left the ship and their 
father, and followed Him." Listen here again : 
" And as Jesus passed forth from thence, He 
saw a man, named Matthew, sitting at the 
receipt of custom: and He saith unto him, 
Follow Me, and he arose, and followed Him." 
Not in a single instance did Jesus say, " Fall 
down and worship Me." If He had done that 
He would have been copying after Satan. 

I find all that Jesus demands of us is prompt 
obedience : willing to renounce Satan and fol- 
low Him, — and He knows the farther we fol- 
low Him the better we will love Him. Jesus 
knows He bears acquaintance, and that if we 
follow Him we are bound to love and admire 
Him, and then comes the final order, " If you 
love Me keep My commandments." 

Walking with Jesus leads us in communion 
with the Holy Spirit, and that Spirit into deepest 
consecration and sincere worship. With Jesus 
there is, of course, a demand for repentance, 
and that demand is fully complied with when 
we renounce the world, and straightway follow 
Him. 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 41 

I find Jesus was a good business man ; He 
wanted prompt action. He never made a prop- 
osition and then said, " I will give you a week 
to repent and make up your mind about this 
matter " ; but, " Matthew, Andrew, I am mov- 
ing on, follow Me." And they straightway 
followed ; didn't tarry but did it immediately. 

One reason we find it so hard to lead people 
to Christ is because they haven't a good opinion 
of Him. They deal with Him like He was a 
tyrant, and in order to get His pardon, you 
must spend a season in agonizing asking Him 
to forgive. I don't know where they get it ; 
the Bible doesn't teach it. It is an inherited 
superstition and many preachers haven't sur- 
vived it. I know many a preacher who hon- 
estly believes that unless a man comes to Jesus 
the way Satan demands that we come to him, 
that no man is saved. 

" As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilder- 
ness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up ; 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish but have eternal life. For God so loved 
the world that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth on Him should not 
perish, but have everlasting life." Praise the 
Lord ! Jesus is so reasonable and His provi- 
sions are so complete and all arrangements so 
fully made, and the contract so just and plain, 
that I can hardly restrain shouting right now, 



42 Revival Addresses 

people, at His wonderful love for mankind. 
The more I follow Him, the better I love to 
follow Him. I can never find where Jesus 
does anything that shows He is weak or ef- 
feminate. I can discover nothing but wisdom, 
meekness, love and greatness, and yet the 
courage that only comes to the pure in heart. 
The old time religion only comes from our 
knowledge of Jesus. 

I remember, when I was a boy, of seeing old 
ladies read the Bible every day, and not only 
old ladies but often I have seen men take the 
Bible and study it for hours. Many a time I 
have seen old ladies reading the word through 
spectacled eyes, and have to stop to remove 
their glasses and with an old red " bandanner " 
dry their eyes. Do you know what was the 
matter? They were walking with Jesus. I 
can remember, also, seeing those old ladies and 
those faithful old men shout at our camp-meet- 
ings, and I never heard one of them shout but 
that I, as a barefooted boy, had perfect confi- 
dence in them. I believed in their purity just as 
much as I believe in the hypocrisy of some of 
your cheap society women who belong to some 
church, and yet have no more respect for its 
teachings than for the bray of an ass. You 
criticize our dear old grandmothers because 
they shout praises to Jesus, and call it their 
ignorance ; yes, I must confess they were ig- 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 43 

norant on some lines. They were not up on 
novels. They were not up on card parties, be- 
cause they didn't know one card from another. 
They were not up on whist clubs, forty-two 
clubs, bridge clubs, Shakespeare clubs, and his- 
toric clubs. They were not up on the waltz 
and the schottische and the polka, but, bless God, 
those dear old souls knew Jesus, and it is 
enough to cause the bones of those old saints 
to rattle in the grave when we see their 
grandchildren and great-grandchildren trying 
to play society, and many of whom belong to 
the church but know no more about Jesus than 
those old mothers and fathers knew about 
whist. No wonder we have so many trifling, 
lazy, worthless boys in the land. No wonder 
we have so many men who are failures. They 
haven't any real mothers to advise them. They 
have a lot of society mamas, and you never in 
your life saw a great man come from a society 
mama. Lord, give us more mothers who know 
Jesus. 

Pure knowledge of Jesus brings with it sea- 
sons of joy so inexpressible and full of glory 
that unless we praise Him it seems that the 
rocks would cry out. Our want of knowledge 
brings with it carelessness and cowardice and 
ingratitude. With all our faults our mothers 
want us to show our love and gratitude 
towards them. 



44 Revival Addresses 

A few years ago I was carrying on a meet- 
ing in Oklahoma, and at that place there was a 
mother who had two sons. One son was from 
all appearances an exemplary boy. He be- 
longed to the church and sang in the choir, and 
was a regular attendant. His name was Ben. 
Her other son, whose name was John, was a 
drunkard and gambler. One day I was in con- 
versation with that mother, and I said to her, 
"I want to congratulate you on your boy." 
She said, "Which one, Brother Burke?" 
" Why, Ben, of course." " Ah, Brother Burke, 
you don't know, you don't know what mother 
knows. Brother Burke, John never leaves 
home in the morning that he doesn't hunt me 
up, and put his arms around me and say, 
'Mother, you know my great weakness — 
mother, don't turn me loose ; I love you and if 
it were not for your love and prayers, mother, I 
don't know what would become of me.' When 
he comes home, I don't care if I am in the 
kitchen, he finds me and hugs me and kisses 
me and pets me. Ah, Brother Burke, you 
don't know what I know. Often when I get 
ready to go to church, he comes up, and strokes 
my hair and says, ' Mother, you are the pret- 
tiest and sweetest woman in town ; mother, I 
love you.' Oh, Brother Burke, you don't 
know. Sometimes he gets home at one o'clock 
in the morning, but he never goes to bed until 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 45 

he comes to my room and kneels by my bedside 
and kisses me and pets me, and tells me how 
he loves me and to keep praying for him. I 
tell you, Brother Burke, you don't know what 
I know. Ben seems good and pure to you, and 
is called a good boy, but he never kisses me 
once in three months. He never pets me ; he 
never tells me he loves me. I tell you, Brother 
Burke, John is wild and reckless but he knows 
his mother, and with all his faults he loves me." 

I may have many faults, and you may find 
room to criticize me and feel justified, but with 
every weakness, I go to Jesus, and say, " Oh, 
Jesus, with all my faults I love you, and I pray 
Thee to give me a blessing." 

Jesus wants to be loved and He wants us to 
come with all our weaknesses and to confess 
Him. So many think just because they are 
weak that they have no right to confess Jesus, 
that to confess Him would show hypocrisy, but 
they are the ones who need Him. " We can do 
all things through Christ which strengtheneth 
us." Through Christ I have overcome a multi- 
tude of weaknesses, and I grow stronger and 
more fervent every day. If we wait to get to 
the place where we will feel worthy before we 
confess Him, a majority of us would never 
start, but Jesus wants us to come to Him in our 
weak and helpless state and confess Him and 
follow Him and He will help us all the way. 



46 Revival Addresses 

A dying outlaw once looked up into my face, 
and said, " Burke, I am dying away from loved 
ones, away from kindred and home. I am dy- 
ing an outlaw without hope ; I am hungering 
for love and kind words. My life has been 
such that I am dying friendless ; but, Burke, 
look into a dying man's face, and remember 
this : God bless you, old fellow, I love you." 
I fell on my knees by the side of that dying 
man, and said : " Jim, that makes me love you 
and I will never leave you." Listen, people ! 
I cannot begin to form words to tell you how 
dearly I loved that man ; my heart melted, and 
tears streamed down my face. If mortal man 
can be appealed to and so wonderfully stirred 
by the earnest words of a poor sinful man, don't 
you know an honest confession and an appeal to 
Jesus touches Him ? 

I can find no instance where Jesus failed to 
bless any soul who came to Him for help. It 
was enough for Jesus when the poor sinful 
woman washed His feet with her tears, and 
dried them with the hairs of her head. It was 
not necessary for her to say a word. Jesus saw 
in that heart her love and gratitude for Him, 
and because of that love He cancelled her sins. 
" Like as a father pitieth his children, so the 
Lord pitieth them that fear Him. For He 
knoweth our frame ; He remembereth that we 
are dust." Our weaknesses and impetuosities, 



How to Get Acquainted With Jesus 47 

frailties generally, should be no excuse for not 
loving Jesus. 

" And the fellowship of His suffering." The 
more I associate with Jesus in His suffering the 
more capable I am of sympathizing with others. 
I linger by Him in the judgment hall. I climb 
Golgotha by His side. I totter under that cross. 
I flinch as I see the nails driven through His 
hands. I shudder as I see the cross dropped in 
that hole four feet deep. I groan as I see Him 
gasping for breath. And when Jesus cried with 
a loud voice, " Father, into Thy hands I com- 
mend My spirit," I then feel like falling on my 
face and saying, " His work is finished." 

The earlier we seek to get acquainted with 
Jesus the easier it is. " Seek ye first the king- 
dom of God and His righteousness; and all 
these things shall be added unto you." 

The older we get the less desire we have for 
His companionship. 



( The aged sinner will not turn. 
His heart so hard he cannot mourn, 
Much harder than the flinty rock, 
He will not turn though Jesus knocks. 



1 The blooming youths all in their prime 
Are counting out their length of time ; 
They ofttimes say 'tis their intent, 
When they are old, they will repent. 



48 Revival Addresses 

11 But, oh, the sad and awful state 
Of those who stay and come too late ; 
The foolish virgins they begin 
To knock, but cannot enter in. 

" Oh, how parents will tremble there 
Who raised their children without prayer ; 
Methinks I hear the children say, 
1 1 never heard my parents pray.' 

11 Oh, parents, take a solemn view 
Of these dear children reared by you ; 
How can you bear to hear their cry, 
And fault you with their misery ? 

" When Christ the Lord shall come again, 
With solemn pomp and burning flame ; 
Go, Gabriel, proclaim the sound ; 
Awake ye nations under ground. 

M Good Lord, what groans and bitter cries ; 
What thunder rolling through the skies ; 
Poor sinners sink in deep despair, 
While saints are shouting through the air." 

I expect to be on the side of saints. 



Ill 

"Count the Cost" 

41 For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth 
not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have suffi- 
cient to finish it? "-— Luke xiv. 28. 

Theee is not a man here who, when he began 
to think of building a house, didn't sit down and 
carefully count the cost. That, of course, is 
business ; that is right. If you haven't enough 
to finish it, you likely decide you'll not build. 

If you want to furnish your home you and 
your wife sit down and count the cost. If you 
want to make a trip to New York, you sit down 
and count the cost. All that is plain, practical 
business. If you want to become a lawyer, 
you count the cost ; you have to make up your 
mind whether or not you have the mental 
ability, and the kind of talent to make a lawyer. 
The same thing applies to a medical student or 
the aspirant for any other profession. Also, 
when a man begins to think of going to heaven, 
intuitively he begins to count the cost. Have 
I enough to invest to get to heaven? I will 
have to invest something. It becomes a per- 
sonal matter and you must use that pronoun I. 
Can / make the investment and have I enough 

49 



Co Revival Addresses 

to put in to finish the fight ? Now, what do I 
have to invest to reach heaven ? I find I will 
have to invest will-power, for " Whosoever will, 
let him take the water of life freely." I find 
that with will-power there must be effort, de- 
termination, and a quitting of my sins, which 
means repentance. I find on close examination 
that I am short in backbone; I am afraid I 
cannot hold out. 

Now there is A. He has made the invest- 
ment and I think he will make a success of it 
because he is never ashamed to stand up for 
Jesus. He seems to have faith and will-power, 
but I am afraid A is a much stronger character 
than I ; I don't think I can hold out. Now 
there is B. I call him a Christian, but B is 
stronger than I ; I can see that, and I am afraid 
I can't stand. 

My wife has also made the investment. I 
think she will make good, but my wife is much 
stronger than I. I am a weaker character and 
I am afraid I cannot possibly get through. The 
man ought to be the leader in every battle, but 
I must confess I out-married myself and I will 
have to let my wife make the battle for heaven 
and for home, and I will have to sneak back 
and sit down and tell my wife as an excuse that 
I don't feel the call to be a Christian. 

Oh, you poor, puny, negative, trifling, whin- 
ing, backboneless coward! Why, bless your 



"Count the Cost " 51 

poor little heart, you are a sissy — you are too 
weak to be called a mollycoddle. Too flimsy 
for a healthy baby ; you are on the side of the 
goats, and a conquered billy, hiding behind the 
bush, and haven't enough backbone to flog a 
fly ; and then you tell me you are a husband 
and father, and your wife and daughter belong 
to the church ; you don't belong but you are a 
well-wisher. God bless you, man, I feel sorry 
for you ; while I have an innate contempt for a 
coward, yet I feel sorry for you because you 
confess it, and confess by your actions that na- 
ture has not provided you with the strength of 
character He has given your wife and others. 

Oh, Lord, it is pitiful, it is pitiful. I do feel 
sorry for that poor shackled piece of humanity, 
who will play the gallant and win an honest good 
woman, and she going down close to death to bear 
children for him, and then he turns his back on 
her, and says by his actions, " Wife, I have counted 
the cost, and I haven't enough pure man in me 
to make the fight ; you be true to me and suffer 
for me, and go on and join the church and lead 
the children right and I will just shab my way 
to hell. I will try to furnish you a home, and 
plenty to wear, and feed you and the children, 
but don't you expect me to join you in the fight 
for Jesus and for a happy fireside because I 
haven't got the stuff to put into it." 

Listen, you listen to me to-night ; and Holy 



52 Revival Addresses 

Spirit burn the truth into the hearts of cowards. 
Before I would confess the things some of you 
men are confessing, and at the same time call 
myself a sober man, I would dissolve partner- 
ship with civilization and go where no church- 
bells ring, where no prayers are made, no 
sermons preached and this Bible not taught, and 
feel comfortable. I certainly would try to find 
my level. Because, man, if you have any pride, 
you cannot be happy seeing others fighting for 
love and virtue and home, while you are backed 
up in the chimney-corner hiding, and in your 
poor little baby voice saying, " I don't feel like 
it. I can't hold out. I can't make the invest- 
ment." Lord, turn on the light. Don't you feel 
proud of yourself? Aren't you a wonderful 
man ? Don't you know your wife and children 
are proud of you ? Good Lord, help such men to 
count the cost. Will you do it ? Count the cost. 

I do love pluck. I was on the frontier for 
years and there I learned its real value. I have 
learned this also : when you find a man who is 
absolutely brave physically, you will find a man 
you can appeal to, and when he is convinced he 
is really wrong and ought to take a stand for 
Jesus, you can't deter that man with a cannon ; 
but I also notice that the man who is a physical 
coward is often the greatest moral coward. 

You say, " Why, you know a saloon man who 
is physically brave and he has no desire to be a. 



"Count the Cost" 53 

Christian." Yes, and you never see him at 
church either. If he were, he would not sit 
here and take what you do ; he would either 
line up or get out of town. Your cowardice 
has robbed you of your pride. Cowards always 
are void of pride and the spirit of resentment. 
You say you don't care what I say ? That is 
proof enough that you are not brave. 

There is a man out there getting very mad, 
but listen, his getting mad fails to take the 
sting of the everlasting truth I am telling him 
out of his heart. You cannot shake it off, you 
cannot do it. I tell you now this sermon is 
going home. "Count the cost." You are 
afraid the battle will be hard to win, the river 
hard to cross. Yes, it is hard to cross if you 
are not game, To win a battle against the 
devil, you must have pluck. And if you invest 
pluck, Jesus will invest the grace. 

" I can do all things through Christ. He is 
my refuge in time of trouble." Pluck, God, 
give us pluck. I like pluck. I like a fighter. 
I love to fish for game fish. I love a game 
man. I like to meet a young man who is grit 
and game, who, when he sees his duty, will 
perform it if the world sinks. We need more 
brave young men. I tell you they are the sal- 
vation of the country. Afraid you cannot 
meet the issue ; cannot make the investment — 
mighty hard for a coward, but if you have the 



54 Revival Addresses 

will-power and the backbone, you will find 
the conflict easy. 

I don't claim that I have an extra amount of 
pluck. I may be defective, but I am at least 
showing more than many of you at this time. 
Listen ; pardon me for personal reference, but 
I want to tell you a little experience of mine 
in the "West. About sixteen years ago, when 
in the employ of the government, I one day 
got an urgent call to make haste and join some 
of my men in the Cherokee country. I mounted 
my best horse and started at once. I had to 
pass through the Osage country and I took a 
trail that led in the direction I wanted to go. 
In the afternoon there came one of the hardest 
rains I ever saw. It was a regular waterspout. 
The rain fell for at least two hours, and I found 
shelter in a little forsaken Indian cabin. When 
the rain ceased, I mounted my horse and rode 
on. That was a day when the grass was high 
enough to reach to the saddle stirrups. A day 
when vast prairies lay untouched by man or 
beast. My horse insisted on turning back, but 
I pushed him on. He would neigh, shake his 
head and want to turn back, but I urged him 
on. Finally I came into an old road or trail 
and I saw fresh horse tracks had passed on 
ahead of me. Then I saw coming towards 
me two horsemen. They proved to be the 
riders that had been ahead of me. 



" Count the Cost " $$ 

I introduced myself to the men, and made 
some inquiry. They began at once to tell me 
to turn back, saying they had started to go by 
this trail but they found on ahead a swift river 
about one hundred and fifty yards wide, and 
that it was running like a mill-race, that logs 
were floating down the stream, and odd chunks 
whirling in eddies, that to enter it meant death. 
I said, " Gentlemen, I have to cross." "Now, 
Burke, no use acting foolish about this matter ; 
we are frontiersmen and used to facing danger, 
but there's no use in a man committing suicide, 
and that is what it means for you to attempt 
to cross that river." 

I said, " All right, men, when you hear of 
my death you can say I died at my post trying 
to perform my duty. I will cross or die ; so 
good-bye." I really dreaded that river, be- 
cause I knew I was far from human help. At 
last I got in sight of it, and found they were 
not far from right. The river was at least one 
hundred and fifty yards wide and very swift. 
I saw, sure enough, logs and chunks. I pulled 
off my coat and vest and shoes, and tied them 
to the horn of my saddle, and got way up on 
my knees in the saddle, and began to coax my 
horse forward. He whirled around and I 
nearly fell off; then began another spell of 
coaxing; the horse inched along for a little 
piece and whirled the other way, and I nearly 



56 Revival Addresses 

fell off again, but the third time the horse pro- 
ceeded to the water's edge, stepping about two 
inches at a step, and smelling of the water and 
blowing ; then in he went deeper and deeper 
and deeper, and to my great surprise the stream 
was just about knee-deep. It was a flat slough 
and was conveying the overflow of a big creek. 
Now, people, that is exactly the way it is with 
the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. When 
you invest backbone and will-power, you find 
the stream hardly knee-deep. It is certainly 
an easy battle for the determined. I find " the 
yoke easy and the burden light." 

"What will it cost to go to heaven ? Listen, 
you moralist ; it is going to cost you your indif- 
ference. Your attitude towards Jesus is actu- 
ally next to contempt. You treat His love 
with a cold, calculating indifference. " Neither 
hot nor cold." The Lord says, "I would you 
were hot or cold, but because you are neither 
hot nor cold I will spew thee out of My mouth." 
This of course applies first to the church-member, 
to a class of whom it was originally addressed, 
but it applies to you indifferent souls as well. 
I tell you, moralist, you need [to invest. You 
must invest in Jesus just the same as the drunk- 
ard, gambler or thief. You must do it. You 
cannot slouch through this life and deny Jesus 
and expect to reach the Eternal City. I do 
believe the moralist is the most miserable man 



"Count the Cost" 57 

on earth. I know he is if he has one bit of 
pride. He hasn't the strength of character to 
get a thing out of sin, neither has he the 
strength to get a thing out of righteousness ; 
and he takes the middle of the road and like a 
drone makes his way to hell. The hardened 
sinner cannot help but feel an innate disdain 
for him. And so does the earnest Christian. 
He is fully and thoroughly negative. 

A few years ago I was carrying on a meet- 
ing in Texas, and a certain moralist attended 
every service, day and night. One day I was 
having a testimony meeting, and I had noticed 
that this man never moved to any propositions, 
but sat perfectly indifferent all the time. So 
on this day I called on him, saying, " Brother, 
what about your case ? " He got up and said, 
" Well, Brother Burke, I don't claim to be a 
Christian, but I claim to be honest, and I don't 
drink or gamble." I said, " Sit down ! You 
don't deserve any credit for being honest, you 
don't deserve any credit for being sober, you 
don't deserve any credit for not swearing — all 
that is your natural duty, and if you are honest 
you don't have to advertise it. If you leave 
Christ out, you are no better in His sight than 
the gambler or the drunkard. You are the 
devil's servant and that certainly settles that 
question." 

I am always very suspicious of any man who 



58 Revival Addresses 

is always boasting of being honest. I believe 
in his heart that man is a scoundrel. Oh, me, 
your morality without Jesus fails to count in 
eternity. You will have to take a stand, man, 
or go down to hell, like the thief and the gam- 
bler. Lord help these men and women who 
say they never did anything so very bad. I 
will tell you what you are doing : you are re- 
jecting Christ ; and that is about the meanest 
thing any enlightened man or woman was ever 
guilty of. 

It will also cost you your profanity ; you will 
have to quit taking the name of God in vain. 
One man says, " That is too strong ; if I 
have to quit ' cussin,' I am ruined. I can't 
make myself fully understood unless I can 
i cuss.' " God help the poor, stupid, vulgar 
" cusser." It is the meanest, the lowest, the 
most contemptible, the most cowardly, the most 
vulgar, and most inexcusable habit on earth. 

Doctor Eapin says, "No gentleman will 
swear." You look for the word "gentleman" 
in "Webster's unabridged, and draw your own 
conclusions. 

Sam Jones said, "All swearers will steal." 
Many people kicked about that remark, but he 
came so near proving it that they dropped the 
subject. You will have to quit it. Some men 
get so mean and low that they swear in the 
presence of their wives, and the poor helpless 



" Count the Cost " 59 

woman, it makes no difference how refined, has 
to take it. God help that poor little woman 
back there tied up to a cusser. 

I used to swear, I hate to confess it, but I 
was a smart alex, and thought I was a real cute 
" cusser." But listen ; I was never low enough 
down in my life to swear in the presence of my 
wife and children. I really had respect for my 
wife after I married her. I always thought 
she was a refined lady and tried to treat her 
with respect. It is true, I have been anything 
but a good husband, because I have been a 
drunkard, and no drunkard can be a good hus- 
band, but I can say this, she never heard me 
swear. Oh, you cowardly man, have you for- 
gotten your wife is a lady and is entitled to re- 
spect ? 

Once in the coast country of Texas, I was 
carrying on a meeting and I hit profanity 
pretty hard. The next day or so a lady came 
to me and said, " Brother Burke, my husband 
is very mad at me, and abusing me because he 
thinks I told you he swore in my presence.'' 
" If ever I saw you before I don't know it," I said 
to her. " No, I told him I had never spoken 
to you, and you didn't even know me, but he 
certainly is mad." " Does he swear in your 
presence ? " " Why, Brother Burke, he is the 
worst you ever heard of." " Well, did he 
swear in your presence before you married ? " 



60 Revival Addresses 

" No indeed ; he was far from it ; I didn't even 
know he swore." "What did he do the first 
time he swore in your presence ? " " He apolo- 
gized." "The next time?" "He didn't say 
anything, and I mentioned it to him, and he 
scolded me and said it was none of my busi- 
ness, that he would swear whenever he got 
ready, and he has been at it ever since." 

God help you poor little women with 
" cussin " husbands. Now in the name of God 
quit it, and show your wife you still respect her. 
It is your filthy sins that make you swear. 
You will have to quit it to get to heaven. It 
will cost you your profanity. " Count the 
cost." It will cost you your dissipation. 
"Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, 
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the 
kingdom of God." 

You will have to quit your drinking. You 
drunkards must sober up if you go to heaven. 
It is going to cost you all your liquor. Whiskey 
and Christianity have never been and never will 
be partners. It is the animal in you that calls 
for whiskey and every drop you drink only 
causes that animal to grow, and that animal 
will suppress all the love and virtue in you. 
Oh, me, whiskey makes a liar of you. It makes 
a thief of you. It makes a libertine of you 
It makes a gambler of you. It makes a 
" cusser " of you ; it makes anarchists, it makes 



"Count the Cost" 61 

robbers, it makes prostitutes, it makes burglars, 
it makes yeggmen, it inhabits hell's half acre. 
It sends out the incendiary, it creates the 
assassin, it whets the villain's dagger, it cocks 
the outlaw's gun, it bribes citizenship. It makes 
tears, causes blood to flow, and hearts to break. 
It builds jails, penitentiaries and the gallows. 
It laughs at the prayers of God's people, and 
builds a hell here and hereafter. 

I tell you, man, you will have to quit it. If 
you go to heaven you must go the sober route. 
There is a man who says, " If I have to quit 
drinking altogether it will be too much for me. 
I must drink some ; I can't quit it altogether." 
It is a plain lie, I tell you ; you can quit it. 
I quit it and I liked it as well as you. 

" Abstain from all appearance of evil." The 
biggest fool in this audience can see there is an 
evil attached to drinking. I tell you it will 
cost you your dissipation. God help you to 
count the cost. 

It will cost you your gambling. If you get 
to heaven it will cost you your gambling. You 
will have to quit. You society women will 
have to quit it. If you want to find a big fool 
over a deck of cards just find a little cheap 
society woman. Society! Oh, how some of 
you women do love what you call society. 
We have a class of men called sports, and this 
cheap society among women is parallel to the 



62 Revival Addresses 

sporting element among men. Some men are 
proud to be called sports. They think it is a 
great honour, and there is a class of women 
who think it is a great honour to be called 
" society." I love " society,'' but I want the 
word " good " placed before it. I love " good 
society," but this cheap, sporting, foul, rotten 
society is a disgrace to any community. In the 
first place, you never see the card-playing 
women, the lovers of cards and dances, who 
ever love husband and home properly ; if they 
did they would have no taste for such things. 

The fallen woman plays for excitement, and 
to span the time. She is so restless and miser- 
able she needs excitement. Nine-tenths of the 
gamblers, according to statistics, learn to play 
cards in the parlours among the fair sex, and 
all gamblers are thieves. Some won't steal out 
of your pocket while you sleep, but they will 
steal in the game. The gambler, who doesn't 
steal in games, wears ragged clothes. Society 
gamblers ! My God, help these poor deluded 
women to see themselves as they are. When a 
woman gets a taste of sin, she is worse than the 
man ; and she tries to hide behind that eating 
cancer called " society," and expects the good 
men and women to excuse it, because she 
imagines it has a high toned name. In some 
cases of stealing, just to give it tone, it is called 
"usurping," sometimes called "malfeasance," 



"Count the Cost" 63 

other times " embezzlement," but they are all 
common thieves. 

"Women will form themselves into clubs, and 
play cards for prizes and call it " society," but 
God would call it gambling, and whenever any 
of you women play cards for a prize, you are 
then on the level with the tin horn gambler 
who plays for a jack pot. Let me tell you 
something ; you listen to me. Some of you 
women carry on this disgraceful conduct and 
at the same time you belong to the church. If 
I were pastor of the church you would either 
have to quit gambling or quit the church. The 
church is trying to carry too much dead weight 
like that. You haven't one bit more right in 
the Church of Christ than the tin horn gambler, 
who plays for a jack pot of two dollars and 
fifty cents. You say you don't play for cash 
but for a prize. It makes no difference, it has 
a price and you take chances, and you are a 
gambler. Well, another says, u We don't all 
chip into the prize ; just one puts it up." Yes, 
that is true, but you take the circuit, and each 
has to take her turn in putting up a prize, and 
that means exactly the same thing. You listen 
to me, woman ; God help you to listen. You 
are not fit for a pure innocent girl to associate 
with. I had as soon my daughter associate 
with a down-town tin horn, as to associate with 
you, and really it is better because he won't try 



64 Revival Addresses 

to teach her there is no harm in gambling and 
you will. Listen again, woman ; your disease 
is full of the wails and tears of innocent wives 
and mothers, because there goes a gambler who 
learned to play in your home, and now his wife 
and child are suffering because of your soiled 
lives and your influence. 

I have no patience with society gamblers; 
they become brazen, coarse and callous. They 
become heartless scoffers at the old time re- 
ligion. They don't testify, they don't pray, 
they don't read the Bible, they don't know how 
to love beyond the limit of the sport. They 
lose respect for the sacredness of home, for the 
Church, for God and decency. I tell you again 
they are a deep-seated, eating, running, putrefy- 
ing cancer, trying to eat right into the heart of 
the Church, under the guise of society, and 
they expect you good men and women to re- 
ceive them in your homes and call them refined. 
God bless your hearts it is not so. Eefinement 
doesn't act that way. 

Look yonder ! there sits a woman who is 
furiously mad. The devil has whispered to 
her, " You can see he is a crank, for he puts 
you down as low as the sport; he puts you 
almost on the level of the harlot." Now 
listen, woman. I don't say you have fallen in 
that sense, but you certainly have many of the 
castaway's habits, for they all play cards and 



"Count the Cost" 65 

gamble just like you. In fact, there is where 
it starts. Oh, if you want to go to heaven, 
men and women, you will have to quit your 
gambling. You must clean up. Every gambler 
under the sound of my voice in his heart says, 
" Amen." They know it is so, and indorse it, 
but you cheap society women, about half of 
you are mad and anxious to get away from 
here and have already said in your heart you 
are not coming back here again. 

I tell you again, a sinful society woman is 
the hardest subject on earth to reach. She 
wants to display her purity by getting mad. 
Listen to me, God bless your dear hearts, you 
quit it. Aristocracy — there is no aristocracy 
about you. You are aping the low and vile. 
I tell you whom I think is an aristocrat. A 
true aristocrat is a man or woman with pride 
enough to consider the welfare of others. He 
has refinement of mind and spirit. He is brave 
enough to want to do good and not be a vehicle 
of destruction. God help you to look to the 
refinement of mind and spirit. You are living 
on too low a plane. You by choice select the 
coarse and vulgar, and then excuse yourself by 
calling it " society," and society has become a 
band of gamblers and cheap sports. God help 
you to see it. " Count the cost." You must 
quit your gambling if you would go to heaven. 
Mighty expensive, isn't it ? 



66 Revival Addresses 

Listen again; with gambling and whiskey- 
there goes another evil; that is dancing. 
Through the dance "society" allows you to 
buckle up with men in the waltz. You wives 
like that, don't you? It is fine; for society 
permits it. It is wrong and you know it. 
You will have to quit it. You take the hug- 
ging away from the waltz, and you society 
women wouldn't care to waltz. You know the 
cotillion is stale to you. What is the reason ? 
All hugging is extracted. It is so. I am sorry 
to say, but it is absolutely so. God have mercy 
on the poor blind woman still trying to hide 
behind society. You will have to quit it. 
" Count the cost." 

It will cost you your lies. You will have to 
quit lying. " All liars shall have their part in 
the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." 
You will have to quit your lying. You will 
have to quit your dishonesty. You merchants 
will have to give good measure and good 
weights. You will have to pay your honest 
debts. You will have to make restitution. 
" Count the cost." You will also have to quit 
your secret sins. I tell you it is going to cost 
you something to go to heaven. Pretty ex- 
pensive, isn't it ? Too expensive for some 
of you. Too much sacrifice, isn't it ? It is 
time to carefully count the cost. 

It costs to go to hell. Now let us see what 



"Count the Cost" 67 

it costs. Listen ; it costs you every call in this 
old Bible. In order to get to hell, you have to 
walk over this old book, your mother's book. 
You will find it expensive. " Count the cost." 
It costs the blood of Jesus. You must defy 
Jesus, your best friend. Deny Jesus who came 
from heaven to provide for your eternal life. 
You have to ignore His every call ; you turn a 
deaf ear to every groan, to every sigh. Trample 
under your feet His blood and His tears. 

To go to hell you must display thorough 
ingratitude, and in order to .display ingratitude 
you must show cowardice. You must refuse 
Jesus and accept Satan, your enemy. God help 
you, can you afford it ? Listen, can you afford 
it ? It is inexcusable, it is mean, it is impolite, 
it is ungentlemanly, it is unladylike. If you 
are refined and have a spirit of honour you 
will find it costs too much. " Count the cost." 
It costs the prayers and tears and heart-aches 
of your mother. You, in order to get to hell, 
must walk on the heart of your mother. I tell 
you the cost keeps heaping up, and any man or 
woman of good blood and principles will find 
the expense too great. Oh, me ; man, think of 
that old mother praying for you ; think of it ; 
and you keeping your cruel heel on her precious 
heart. May God help you to take it off and let 
her get one long, deep breath. Let her have a 
few days' peace and happiness while she remains 



68 Revival Addresses 

here on earth. Decide, man ; God help you to 
decide. 

Some years ago living near a frontier town 
was a widow and an only son. They were poor 
but the mother was happy because she served 
God, and her boy at this time was a good boy. 
He finally began to make trips to town, and his 
hour of getting in at night was later and later. 
She found he was drinking. She agonized and 
prayed for him and begged him to quit it and 
let her be happy again. To all her entreaties 
he turned a deaf ear. He finally fell in love 
with an outcast woman, and she led him into 
trouble and he at last landed behind prison 
bars. The old mother went to town and found 
out what the fine and costs were, then went 
home and saved eggs and butter, and sold them 
and sold her chickens and her turkeys until she 
had enough to a cent to pay it off. She went 
to the justice of the peace in the court house 
and told him to send for her son. When the 
son came in, she said, " My boy, I have denied 
myself and saved enough to pay your fine and 
costs," and she counted out the last cent she 
had. She then said, " Come on and let us go 
on home." They started out of the court house 
together but when they got close to the door 
the harlot with whom he had fallen in love 
stood on the outside and smiled at her son and 
he smiled back. The old mother saw it, and 



" Count the Cost " 69 

stepped out between her boy and the woman 
and said, " Vol, I am your mother. I gave you 
birth. For you I went down close to death. 
I love you, I love you. You are all I have here 
on earth. I have sacrificed and denied myself 
and suffered want for your sake ; but, Vol, the 
time has come that your final decision must be 
made. You must decide between that fallen 
woman and me, and let this decision be final. 
If you love me more than you do this woman, 
leave her now and we will go on home ; but if 
you love her better than your mother and are 
willing to cast me off for her, just push me 
aside and go with her." 

Listen, think of it. That boy took hold of 
his mother and gave her a little push and said, 
" Stand aside," and took that low woman by 
the arm and walked away. Wasn't that mean ? 
Yes, you will say, that fails to express it. 
"Why," one says, "he ought to have been 
hung." Yes, yes, he was a villain ; he was a 
black-hearted, ungrateful coward. But you 
listen to me, now listen. I tell you that boy 
was even better than you men and women who 
to-night will push aside the Lord Jesus Christ 
who appeals to you, with blood-stained brow, 
with a bleeding back and a broken heart. He 
pleads with you to come, and you turn your 
back on Him and walk proudly off from this 
tabernacle arm in arm with Satan. 



70 Revival Addresses 

" Count the cost." It costs the prayers and 
tears of your wife. Look here, man, that little 
patient wife of yours is praying for you ; you 
have disappointed her. Only a few years ago 
you wooed and won her, and she walked to the 
altar with you, thinking you were brave and 
honourable, thinking that if ever the time came 
to fight Satan for the sake of her children you 
would go bravely into the battle ; but she finds 
she has to make the fight alone, and I tell you 
she finds the battle mighty hard. She is pray- 
ing for you. She sees other husbands taking 
up the fight against sin and helping their wives 
protect the children ; but you, blind and lazy, 
neglectful and sinful man, lie back and say you 
don't feel like it. Listen, man, you man sitting 
right over there, listen and see if you cannot 
hear the blood dripping from the heart of that 
wife who sits by your side. My God, man, 
how can you stand it ? You confess it is your 
duty, but you show your wife you think more 
of Satan, and of sin, and of the vulgar gang 
you associate with than you do of her, and you 
defy her prayers and her tears. 

Lord, wake up dead men. I think it is a sin 
for a good woman to bear children for a lazy, 
trifling man who hasn't pride enough to help 
protect the children that are born unto you. 
Almighty God, help ! 

Say, man, count the cost. You listen to me ; 



" Count the Cost" 7 1 

I tell you honestly, there is not a proud and 
honourable man under the sound of my voice 
who is going to sit there and crush the heart of 
mother and wife and say, " I am going on to 
hell." Shame, shame ! God help them to feel 
the shame ; Lord, touch the pride of men. 

It will cost the tears and entreaties of friends. 
The best friend you have in this world is the 
one who goes to you and invites you to go to 
heaven with him. 

Sometimes you hear a coward saying he 
would go to the meeting if they would let him 
alone ; but he won't go if the personal worker 
comes to talk to him. Let me tell you some- 
thing ; that man is advertising himself as being 
vulgar, mean and depraved. Why don't you 
say you won't go into a saloon for fear some 
one will ask you to take a drink ? 

I notice occasionally we find a church-mem- 
ber who says he doesn't believe in personal 
work, because it drives some away. Let them 
leave ; the man it will drive away won't be 
saved anyway. It is a good way to find who 
have the qualities of a true man or woman, for 
a man or woman who has good blood will 
appreciate it. The man or woman who doesn't 
like it is too cheap for heaven anyway, and if 
they insult you, or run, you will know they be- 
long to the swine delegation ; and don't worry, 
save all your pearls for better subjects. 



72 Revival Addresses 

Listen ; you can have a preacher to follow 
your son or your husband who is without 
Christ to yonder lonely graveyard. You can 
beg the preacher to say some word at his grave 
to / ive you a faint hope that he has gone to 
rest. But, dear one, you go out to that grave 
some night when you can almost feel the dark- 
ness. Some time when the moon is behind the 
earth, when every star is tucked away behind 
the dark clouds, when all is still, not even a 
katydid to break the silence, in the far distance 
you can hear the dismal muttering of the 
thunder. You feel your way to that grave and 
call if you can that departed spirit to steal back 
and write his own epitaph. Cry to God to give 
you spiritual eyes to watch the proceedings. 
See yonder that lost spirit groping up to that 
stone. Watch him chisel away the "Lamb," 
and the words " Gone to Kest," and see him 
chisel there just one word, " Despair." " Count 
the cost." God help you to count the cost. 



IV 
The Fool 

" The fool hath said in his heart there is no God." 

You will find my text in the fourteenth 
Psalm, a portion of the first verse. Let us 
pray for a victory to-night. 

If, in the language of Tom Payne, this Bible 
is the work of designing priests; if Jesus 
Christ is at best a delusionist ; if immortality 
is a myth and religion a sham, then I say why 
should we practice virtue? Why practice 
honour ? Why practice chastity ? Why 
practice love? If Tom Payne is right why 
should we obey the dictates of a conscience ? 
Why not dive down after the things that 
satisfy the flesh ? 

This book says, " Knowing this, that the law 
is not made for a righteous man, but for the 
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and 
for sinners, for unholy and profane," etc. 
Neither does the law of our land apply to the 
righteous but to the sinner. The Christian can 
go to any city in America with a light heart, 
because he is not uneasy about the law. All 
followers of Christ are safe in America. 

It is not necessary for you to get out on the 
73 " 



74 Revival Addresses 

streets, or in your place of business, or in your 
home and declare by words there is no God. 
Actions speak louder than words. Your actions 
declare just about what you think. You may 
say you believe there is a God, that you 
believe Jesus is the Son of God, that you 
think this Bible is true, and then turn and 
give it the lie by your every-day life. Listen : 
" The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
God." He says it by his life ; it is not neces- 
sary for him to say it by word, but his life 
speaks out what he must believe in his heart. 

We only have about two classes of men to 
deal with, the positive and the negative. The 
positive man will stand out for what he be- 
lieves. If a man thinks democracy is right, he 
will, if he is a positive man, vote the Democratic 
ticket if every other man in his community 
votes the Republican ticket; and if a man 
thinks the Eepublicans are right, and he is a 
Republican, he will, if he is a positive char- 
acter, vote that ticket if all others are against 
him. If a positive man firmly believes it is 
right to serve Christ, he believes in God, he 
will vote that ticket if every other man in the 
county is against him. The exceptions are 
only found in negative people. 

Now I am going to lay down a flat proposi- 
tion and let it soak in for a while. Every man 
and woman under the sound of my voice who 



The Fool 75 

is not a Christian is either a coward or a fool. 
" Woap, sir ! you are getting too personal," 
says one man. But I repeat it. You are 
either a coward or a fool. Another man says, 
" You are mistaken, sir. I am no coward ; I 
will fight every day in the week if necessary, 
and if I had you out I would prove to you that 
I will fight." Well, so will a bulldog, but 
from a moral point of view you are a coward. 
Now I will see if I cannot prove it. Listen ; 
I walk up to you and ask you the following 
questions, "Do you believe there is a God?" 
You say, " Yes." Jesus says, " Ye believe in 
God, believe also in Me." " Do you believe in 
Christ ? " " Yes." " You think this Bible is 
true ? " " Yes." " You think you have a soul 
and there is a hereafter?" "Yes." "Well, 
then, are you a Christian?" "No." "Why 
aren't you a Christian?" "Well, 1 see so 
many fail, I am afraid I cannot hold out ; and 
then I am running with a gang that will criti- 
cize me if I make a start, and I dread starting." 
You confess right there that you are a coward. 
Well, suppose I walk up to another man and 
ask him if he believes there is a God, and if he 
believes in Christ and he says, " No." God 
calls him a fool. So that pins the basket ; you 
are either a coward or a fool, and you cannot 
dodge it in a hundred years. Now what are 
you going to do about it ? 



76 Revival Addresses 

I once walked up to a sinner after I had 
preached on this text, and asked him which he 
was, a coward or a fool, and he said, " I guess 
I am both, Brother Burke." I said, "Well, 
sir, I would hate to confess it ; it is bad 
enough to be one. I tell you, the trouble is 
we have so many people who have no pride on 
these lines. What you need, man, is pride." 

I preached on this text once in an Oklahoma 
town, and sitting before me was a rich mer- 
chant who claimed to be an infidel. He told 
me that the next day he could hear nothing 
but the words, " fool or a coward," " coward or 
a fool," and he couldn't get away from it. He 
said he hated a coward, and always felt sorry 
for a fool, and he was one or the other, and he 
couldn't possibly escape unless he took a stand 
for Christ, and so the next night he walked 
up and accepted Christ. I usually have some 
patience with any man who says he is an hon- 
est skeptic, but he is seeking the light. I defy 
any skeptic to come to us and ask any question 
that we cannot answer by the word of God. 
God has answered all questions that any man 
can ask a long time ago. I really have more 
patience with the honest skeptic who is seeking 
light than with the poor indifferent fellow who 
believes everything and does nothing. 

I see two men go through this world, one an 
infidel and the other a believer by word, but a 



The Fool 77 

disbeliever by actions, who says he believes the 
Bible is true, but fails to accept Christ. I see 
them both pass away. I can see them in my 
mind cast away from heaven's gate. I see the 
infidel and hear him say, " I am surprised ; 
really there is a hell and I am in it. I am lost. 
I really have a soul. This is horrible ; I am 
lost, realty lost." I look yonder and see him 
meet the good moral man who always believed 
but never accepted. The infidel is still moan- 
ing out his grief over a misspent life. " I never 
knew there was a hell." The little moralist 
saj^s, " Why, I always knew there was a hell." 
"You did?" "Yes." "And you believed 
that Jesus w r as the Son of God ? " " Yes." 
"And failed to accept Him?" "Yes." "Well, 
you ought to be here." " To him that knoweth 
to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." 
The greatest sin any man can be guilty of is to 
believe that Jesus is the Son of God and then 
fail to accept Him. 

We often find men who will search this Bible 
from Genesis to Bevelation to find some pas- 
sage of Scripture that they can ride to hell on. 
" As also in all His epistles, speaking in them of 
these things ; in which are some things hard to 
be understood, which they that are unlearned 
and unstable wrest as they do also the other 
Scriptures, unto their own destruction." Oh, 
me ! if only you can find a verse in the Bible 



yS Revival Addresses 

to mystify you. If only you can find a contra- 
diction, you will be in clover. Did you ever 
hear a little ignoramus standing on the street 
corner, one who cannot speak the English lan- 
guage correctly, and doesn't know a noun 
from a verb, boast of his wisdom and say, 
"Why, the Bible is full of contradictions." 
Isn't it wonderful that a Knox, a Moody, a 
Spurgeon, a Wesley, a Talmage, a Beecher, a 
Torrey, a Chapman, or a Morgan cannot find a 
single contradiction in the Word of God from 
lid to lid, but that corner grocery loafer has 
"shore" found it. I never saw an ass that 
didn't bray some time. 

During a meeting in Oklahoma, and board- 
ing at the same hotel that I did, was a doctor, 
whom I found had been a great traveller and 
also a great reader. I loved to talk to him be- 
cause he seemed to be absolutely posted on 
most subjects. One day I said to him, " Doctor, 
what church do you belong to ? " "I don't be- 
long to any." "Well, I am surprised at that; 
you are a Christian, aren't you ? " " No, I am 
not a Christian." "Doctor, I am still more 
surprised to find a man of your learning and 
your broad travel who is not a Christian. I 
find, doctor, that as a usual thing those who 
have studied hard and travelled much are be- 
lievers." "Burke, to the contrary, I am a 
skeptic." " Now, doctor, the mystery is really 



The Fool 79 

deepening. I find the skeptics are usually the 
unlearned. How do } r ou account for your skep- 
ticism? Would you mind telling me what 
makes you a skeptic ? " " Burke, I am a scien- 
tist." "Doctor, I am glad of it; I have a 
smattering knowledge of science and I am al- 
ways glad to meet a real scientist, for from him 
I can learn something. But what has science 
got to do with it ? " " Well, there is one thing 
in the Bible that I don't think ever occurred. 
It is contrary to science, and I won't accept it, 
and it spoils all the Bible story with me from 
Genesis to Bevelation." "What is it?" 
" Burke, I don't believe that Balaam's ass ever 
spoke ; it is contrary to science and I don't be- 
lieve it." " Say, doctor, can you find anywhere 
in the lids of the Bible where it says 'Thou 
shalt believe that Balaam's ass spoke and be 
saved ' ? ]STow listen, doctor. I once tried my 
best to be an infidel. I tried it for several 
years, and I used to take up such arguments as 
that and try to find some comfort, but, at last, 
I took up the other side and began to reason a 
little. I look yonder and see men delving into 
the mountainside and taking out iron ore, and 
I see them manufacturing the iron and the 
steel. I see them build railroads, lay the steel, 
and put on the track trains of cars, and as I see 
them rushing through the country, I say, ' Just 
look and see what man with his finite mind is 



80 Revival Addresses 

accomplishing. 5 Man is still not satisfied ; he 
manufactures finer steel, and he goes to the 
forest and gets the timbers and manufactures 
lumber. I see him build a box, and in that box 
I see him inserting steel wires. I see some 
ivory keys put in front. A young lady sits 
down on a stool and trips her fingers over the 
keyboard, and she begins to snatch music from 
the air. I say, < Well, the air is full of music 
and man is getting it out.' I look yonder and 
I see him construct the great iron-clad ocean 
steamer. I see that ship ride the waves and 
almost defy the fury of the deep. I look 
yonder and see man inventing the great tele- 
scope. I see him begin to scan the heavens and 
he discovers millions of other suns, and the dis- 
tances from earth to moon, planet and sun. I 
cry out, ' See what man with that finite mind 
is accomplishing.' Man is still not satisfied ; he 
invents the telephone and you call up a man 
five hundred miles away; ' Hello, Bob, is that 
you ? Yes, yes, I can detect your voice, Bob.' 
Just see what man is doing. He still is not 
satisfied; he invents the graphophone and I 
listen and I hear the voice of a McKinley. I 
say, ' Yes, that is McKinley.' I hear the voice 
of Talmage. I hear the voice of Taft and 
recognize it. I hear Eoosevelt. I hear Bryan, 
and I make up my mind, doctor, that if a man 
can make a little box like that talk like a man, 



The Fool 81 

if I had sense enough to make a i donkey,' I 
could make him talk too." The doctor laughed 
and said, " Burke, I will drop that mule right 
here," and, thank God, he did, and the doctor 
joined the church. The last time I heard from 
that doctor he was still a good and faithful 
member. 

Listen ; some men toil for years to convince 
themselves that they are nothing more than the 
lower animals ; just like the ox, when they lie 
down in death, that ends the chapter. Now if 
it suits you to be a brute, I don't presume I 
ought to complain ; but God bless your hearts, I 
am glad to say I have a better opinion of myself. 
I think I am a man and that God created me for 
noble purposes. My soul is worth just as much 
as a Gladstone's. " God is no respecter of per- 
sons." And I am just as much entitled to 
heaven as any man, and I am not going to slop 
along and go to hell on the ground that I don't 
amount to much. 

On one occasion I was sitting in the lobby of 
an Oklahoma hotel writing. Sitting close to 
me was a professor, who was talking to a 
drummer on Darwin's theory — tracing himself 
from monadism through tadpoleism and step- 
ping on up to monkeyism, and chimpanzeeism 
and then losing the tail and becoming a man, 
and thence developing intelligence up to our 
present standard. The drummer finally agreed 



82 Revival Addresses 

with him and the professor evidently thought 
he was displaying wonderful powers as a real 
student. Another drummer sitting near took 
issue, and at last got angry and left them. The 
professor laughed and said, " Well, they can't 
stand in the face of knowledge ; they all have 
to run when you get after them with the cold 
facts." He turned to me and said, "Burke, 
have you heard my argument ? " " Yes, sir, 
part of it." "Don't you agree with me?" 
"No, sir, I do not." "Ha, ha! Well, Burke, 
I am surprised ; why, I believe it with all my 
heart. I think, sir, /came from the monkey." 
I said, " Professor, you can't get any argument 
out of me on that point. I think you did too, 
but I know I didn't." If a man wants to be a 
monkey he has my consent, but, bless God, I 
am a man, created for noble purposes, and I am 
going to act like a man. 

" The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
God." I want you to keep that word " fool " 
in your mind. You get out, you little simlin- 
headed, frog-eyed ape, and butt up against 
God's word and God calls you a " fool," and 
that is the highest authority on this earth, and, 
I confess, I believe it is so. God doesn't stop 
to argue the matter with you, but calls you a 
fool and goes on. Ingersol was an agnostic for 
cash. It paid him to be an infidel. An old 
story goes like this. A certain man went up to 



The Fool 83 

Ingersol and said, " Colonel, you and I are to- 
gether. I have read your ' Mistakes of Moses,' 
and I agree with you. I have heard you lec- 
ture and I agree with you. We are absolutely 
together." Ingersol looked at him and saw 
his calibre, and of course felt disgusted and said, 
" We are together, are we ? " " Yes." " Well, 
what do you make out of it ? " " What do I 
make out of it ? " " Yes." " I don't make a 
thing." " Well, sir, there is a great difference 
between us. I am an agnostic for one thousand 
dollars a night, and you are an agnostic because 
you are a fool." Bim! I know it hits you, 
man, sitting back there, but you take your 
medicine. I want you to feel ashamed of that 
word "fool." Eemember this, man; as you 
walk the streets to-morrow, many people will 
be remarking, " There goes a fool ; " and I never 
saw the day that I could stand being called a 
fool. 

Do you remember that rich man who had 
ground that brought forth plentifully ? After 
he had decided to pull down his barns and 
build greater, he said, " There will I bestow all 
my fruits and my goods and I will say to my 
soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for 
many years ; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be 
merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool, 
this night thy soul shall be required of thee." 
God called him a fool because he had left Him 



84 Revival Addresses 

out of his plans. His plans indicated that he 
believed in his heart there was no God. I see 
some of you men planning the same way and 
making provisions for a long life and leaving 
God out. Let me tell you this, man ; God is 
going to call your soul before long, and your 
final judgment will consist of two words, " Thou 
fool." Almighty God, send Thy spirit to con- 
vince men. 

You have perhaps heard that old story of the 
king and the buffoon. The king said to the 
buffoon, " Buffoon, here is a staff, and if ever 
you find a bigger fool than you are you can 
give it to him." The buffoon went away and 
was gone fourteen years, and the king was 
taken very sick. He found out where the 
buffoon was and sent for him. The buffoon 
came into the presence of the king leaning on 
the staff he had given him fourteen years be- 
fore. The king said, " Well, buffoon, I see you 
still have that staff I gave you." " I have, O 
king." " Have you never found a bigger fool 
than you are?" "I never have, O king." 
" Well, buffoon, I must bid you good-bye, for I 
am about to go on a long journey." "How 
long are you to be gone ? " "I shall never re- 
turn." "What, never return! Who is to go 
with you and what preparation have you made 
for so great a journey?" "I shall have no 
company, oh, buffoon, for on this journey I 



The Fool 85 

must go alone, and alas I have made no prep- 
aration whatever." " Then take you my staff," 
replied the buffoon, " for surely I would not 
start on so long a journey and that alone and 
yet make no preparation whatever for the 
journey itself or my reception at its end. 
Surely you are the greater fool than I." 

We have too many like the king waiting un- 
til just before they die to consider their end. 
It reminds me of a man squeezing all the juice 
out of a lemon and passing the hull to his best 
friend. You squeeze out all the juice of your 
life for Satan and about the time you get ready 
to die, you throw the hull in God's face and 
say, " Take that." It will do for a coward but 
not for a brave and honourable man. Aristotle 
said, " Eeligion to the young is a necessity ; to 
the old a comfort ; to the rich an honour ; to 
the fortunate an ornament ; to the wretched a 
support ; it ennobles the slave and exalts no- 
bility itself." I believe every word of it. And 
yet you will find some who say, " The religion 
of the Lord Jesus Christ is good for old women 
and weak-minded men." If it is only good for 
old women and weak-minded men, I pray 
Almighty God will give us more of them. If 
it takes old women and weak-minded men to 
civilize this world ; if it takes old women and 
weak-minded men to tame cannibals ; if it takes 
old women and weak-minded men to bring 



86 Revival Addresses 

peace out of chaos ; if it takes old women and 
weak-minded men to light the home with joy 
and hope, dear Father, give us more of them. 
Old women and weak-minded men, think of it ! 
The man who says such a thing is not fit to be 
called husband or father. You listen to me to- 
night ; you can go to any land, to any country 
where this Bible is not taught and you will find 
the women either mistresses or slaves, and 
sometimes both, and yet in America, where you 
find Christ through the Church has done so 
much for women, you will find many who are 
not Christians. 

Why, you women, listen to me; no nation 
under the sun exalts women like America. The 
respect shown you by the American gentleman 
is beautiful. On the street he doffs his hat, and 
in the elevator he uncovers his head, and this 
respect comes from the civilizing influences of a 
Christian nation. I find, however, that multi- 
tudes of the American women are not strong 
enough to stand prosperity and courtesy, and 
it has turned their faces from God, and we are 
now getting on hand a breed of dog-loving 
and baby-hating society set, who are even a 
disgrace to heathenism ; and unless it can be 
checked some way that fool set of women will 
yet rip our national flag from the pole and will 
dip it in the mire of base depravity and we will 
be no more. 



The Fool 87 

Kecently it only took one woman to revolu- 
tionize Portugal, and yet we find in America 
thousands upon thousands of godless society 
women who are in their hearts as vulgar and 
reckless as a Gaby des Lys. You will find 
to-day that multitudes of women who claim, 
through their wealth, to occupy a higher 
station than the poor, have no more regard for 
the presence of the labouring man when it 
comes to refinement and courtesy than she 
would for the presence of a pup. Oh, the gross, 
stupid, coarse, contemptible vulgarity of some 
of the American women. 

I sometimes wonder if, in God's own good 
way, He will not yet have to dethrone woman 
and put her back where she was two thousand 
years ago. To me there is nothing purer than 
a pure, modest, godly woman, and to me there 
is nothing more debasing than a woman who 
turns from God and modesty, and spends her 
life padding and posing and sinning and scoff- 
ing and denying her Saviour. God, save the 
women ; Lord, save the " fool " woman. " The 
fool hath said in his heart there is no God," and 
the greatest fool I ever saw is a fool woman. 
In this enlightened age, when I ask a woman 
if she is a Christian, and she says, " No," if she 
hasn't pride enough to blush, I will actually 
blush for her. Lord, wake up dead women. 
Listen ; you can take every Bible on earth and 



88 Revival Addresses 

destroy it, and then let any man sit down and 
read the histories of the earth and he will, if he 
has a fair mind, be made to believe that Jesus 
is divine. 

I have in my past life laboured hard to try 
to be an infidel. I have read Yoltaire, St. 
Just, Tom Payne's " Age of Keason," Ingersol, 
and I have read considerably after Darwin. I 
have talked skepticism and tried to persuade 
myself that I believed it, but I found nothing 
there but husks, and I am here to tell you, man, 
that it is not possible for a soul on this earth 
who has been properly trained to find any 
satisfaction in trying to stuff his mind with the 
idea that he is in death not superior to the 
beast. In my heart there was always a rest- 
less, discontented feeling that made me miser- 
able. That restlessness drove me into sin, and 
when I see a man going into all manner of sin, 
I feel sorry for him, because he must be miser- 
able. Man, I know you ; I know you suffer ; 
listen to my text ; I am afraid you will forget 
it. " The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
God." The remedy for your misery, man, is to 
quit acting the fool, and as sure as you sit there, 
sweet rest will come to your soul. 

I was once in company with my chief clerk, 
when I was managing Deputy United States 
Marshal in the fourth district of Oklahoma, and 
he said to me, " Burke, I wish I could argue in- 



The Fool 89 

fidelity like you can." I said, " Morris, I would 
to God I fully believe what I argue." "Why, 
Burke, I am surprised. Don't you believe it ? " 
" ]STo, in my heart I don't believe a word of it ; I 
cannot." " Well, if you don't believe it, why do 
you argue it ? " I said, " Isow, Morris, I will 
see if I cannot make this plain to you. Would 
you call me a negative or a positive man ? " He 
said, "Positive." " Would you call me a brave 
man or a coward ? " "I would call you brave 
because a coward couldn't hold your position." 
" Well, I want to pose as a positive man and 
as a brave man. Whether I am or not, I do 
want to be ; and now listen, Morris ; suppose 
a preacher were to come to me and say, 
' Burke, do you believe there is a God ? ' 
' Yes.' ' Do you believe in the Bible ? ' ' Yes.' 
1 You then think Jesus is the Son of God ? \ 
1 Yes.' ' You think you have a soul ? ' ' Yes.' 
i You think there is an eternity ? ' ' Yes.' 
' Well, Burke, are you a Christian ? ' ' ]So.' 
' Why, sir, I thought you were a positive char- 
acter. I thought you were a brave man and yet 
you haven't the grit to back up what you 
believe.' I tell you, Morris, if I answered that 
preacher in the affirmative, he could tie me 
down hog fashion, because if a man believes 
those things, he must confess his cowardice in 
rejecting them. So I take the other side and 
become a liar just to protect myself from being 



90 Revival Addresses 

called a coward." Man, I do feel sorry for you ; 
you cannot fool me. I tell you, you are a 
coward or a fool. 

It is true my father always tried to teach me 
to be firm and take a stand on things I thought 
to be right, but I know that sin misshaped my 
life, and is misshaping yours. It is sin that 
makes you lie ; it is sin that causes you to act so 
cowardly. " There is no peace, saith my God, 
to the wicked." Man, you know it is so ; I 
know it is so ; God says so, and that settles it. 
I tried to find rest in studying infidelity, but 
God thought too much of me for that. I have 
been on the mountain tops with no ear of man 
to hear my voice. I would say in my heart, 
I am alone, yet I am not alone. It seemed to 
me that some unseen force hovered near. That 
force didn't seem to speak from the caverns 
beneath, nor specially from the heavens above, 
but it was near, very near all the same. 

If we could to-night drop these eyes of clay, 
it might be that many would cry out, for in 
looking through spiritual eyes we would dis- 
cover the unobserved forces are really stronger 
than the observed. We cannot see the great 
forces with our natural eyes, but at times we 
can unmistakably feel them. Listen, go with 
me to the ocean while the moon is shining 
brightly and let us sit there. I do love to hear 
the sea foam and surge, and moan and sigh, 



The Fool 91 

and lash and roar. I love to see the tens of 
thousands bursting bubbles sparkling like dia- 
monds, all kissed by the silvery moon. You 
hear the doleful appeal of the whistle of a 
great steamer ; you see ships pull out, loaded 
down with supplies to empty into the lap of 
foreign want. Tou say all seem to be busy 
upon the deep. I sat once upon the shore of 
the Atlantic ; the night was delightful. And 
the sea seemed to say, " You know I am not 
here by chance ; you know there is an unseen 
hand behind me." The stars twinkled out of 
their great distance the same information. And 
in the language of the author of the " Wonder 
Land," I was made to cry out, in my heart, 
" Steve Burke, you are to yourself an enigma ; 
you are an unexplainable mystery." I looked 
again upon the deep, and wanted to say, " Oh, 
tell me, ye winged winds, and mighty waves of 
ocean tide, have you ever found in your broad 
circuit the land of evermore ? " The answer 
that comes back from the caverns of untaught 
nature are not sufficient to gratify a longing 
soul, but only a necessary link. It is then that 
a man begins to move backward through his- 
tory to find information. He goes back to the 
days of Plato, the king of philosophers. He 
goes back to the schools of Pliny. He goes 
back to Socrates and to Aristotle and there he 
finds the first thing that giant intellects settled 



9 2 



Revival Addresses 



upon was that they had an immortal soul. 
Plato said, " There must come a time, some 
time, when either a God or a God-man must 
come and make it clear." He felt it ; he heard 
a voice, and was not mistaken. I come on 
through the centuries. I pass by the cross, 
and I find since the day of His crucifixion 
every man who has climbed the rungs of suc- 
cess, and who has at last written his name 
high on the tablets of fame, has been of those 
who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. I find 
that to-day those great men whose names we 
revere, and who, in our schools, the American 
youth is taught to emulate, have been men 
who believed in Christ, and were confident 
they had a soul. Tom Payne with all his in- 
tellect is remembered only as a byword, as is 
also Ingersol and others, who denied our Lord 
and His Word. I tell you, man, God is not 
going to be mocked. "Whatsoever a man 
soweth, that shall he also reap." 

Some years ago in Texas a lawyer came to 
me and said, " Burke, I always go to hear you 
preach, and you are the only man I do go to 
hear. I would go fifty miles most any time 
to hear you handle certain subjects ; I love to 
hear you because you seem to be in earnest and 
believe just what you say." " Why, judge, of 
course I am in earnest. I certainly do believe 
all I say." " Yes, I think you do ; I do wish I 



The Fool 93 

could believe it." "Believe what, judge?" 
" Believe that Jesus is the Son of God." 
" What, you a lawyer, and say you don't be- 
lieve it? Why, judge, Gladstone, the prince 
of lawyers, believed it and with all his heart. 
Eufus Choate, America's greatest lawyer, be- 
lieved it, and with all his heart. You say you 
cannot believe it ! Judge, did you ever read 
Napoleon's experience in St. Helena ? He 
there had time to take up the Bible and read 
it, and hear his conclusion of the whole matter 
as he speaks it to Bertrand : ' I tell you, Ber- 
trand, I know men, but Jesus Christ was more 
than man.' Now, judge, you take the giant 
mind of a Napoleon, and compare it to a Tom 
Payne and draw your own conclusions. Judge, 
George Washington, the father of our country, 
believed it, Lee^believed it, Jackson believed it, 
Garfield believed it, McKinley believed it, 
Boosevelt believes it, Bryan believes it, your 
mother and my mother believe it, and it ought 
to be enough for us. Judge, what does our 
national flag denote ? " " Liberty." " That is 
right, but what else ? " "I don't know just 
what you mean, Burke." " Well, I thought 
so. Judge, I want to call your attention to the 
wisdom of our forefathers. The red upon that 
flag denotes the blood of the crucified one. 
The stars denote the Star of Bethlehem. The 
stripes 'by whose stripes we were healed.' 



94 Revival Addresses 

The blue, the canopy of heaven. The white 
denotes innocence. The eagle denotes the fact 
that as it soars aloft, above the lark, the dove 
and the vulture, so do we as American people 
soar aloft above the balance of the world in 
freedom of thought and in freedom of speech. 
And can you say in the face of these facts 
that you don't believe in Jesus Christ ? I tell 
you, judge, you cannot take your stand and call 
yourself a good loyal American citizen." 

I fear, folks, you have forgotten my text ; 
here it is, listen : " The fool hath said in his 
heart there is no God." You cannot believe in 
Jesus, yet you must confess Him every day and 
practically every hour. Now, you infidel out 
there, suppose a man gives his note to you for 
one hundred dollars. What is the first thing 
you do to see that the note is good ? I tell 
you, you look to see if it is dated, and if it is 
not dated you fail to accept it. In other 
words, before you will call that a good note, you 
must find Jesus is confessed, October 12, a. d. 
1910. Isn't that too bad ? Why, bless your 
heart, you cannot transact business without con- 
fessing Jesus. Jesus, raised by a poor carpen- 
ter at the insignificant place called Nazareth, 
came from among the peasants, came forth in 
meekness and unpretentious, came forth and 
walked from place to place with His disciples 
without cash and without display. He never 



The Fool 95 

wrote a line that we have on record. He was 
scoffed by those who called themselves learned — 
His followers were but few. He was crucified 
like a thief, yet Almighty God sent His Spirit 
into the hearts of the people of earth to change 
the calendar, and the calendar we now use 
dates from His birth. Alexander conquered 
the world but he couldn't make the calendar. 
Hannibal was a great general but he couldn't 
touch it. Napoleon couldn't do it, but Jesus 
without a single effort did it, and if it were 
changed because of the diseased imagination 
of the world, through superstition, no man has 
ever been able to prove it. I tell you God is 
not mocked. He ties you little fellows He 
calls " fools " so that if you transact any busi- 
ness in a civilized country you must confess 
Christ. Xo wonder God calls you a fool. 
Listen ; I hand you a due bill for fifty dollars ; 
it has no date on it ; jou are an infidel ; you 
say, " Hold on, this due bill is not good." 
" Why ? " " Because you failed to confess 
Christ on it." " Why, sir, I thought you didn't 
believe in Christ ? " " Well, I don't until it 
comes to business, then I am forced to confess 
Him." Can you not see the fool peeping out and 
oozing out at every chink and crack ? I tell 
you God makes no mistakes. He knows what 
He is talking about when He calls you a " fool." 
Lord, wake up the " fools." 



96 Revival Addresses 

Some years ago I was walking the streets of 
the town in which I then resided when I met a 
Jewish rabbi, who said to me, " Burke, what 
are you ? " I said, " Why, sir, I am managing 
Deputy United States Marshal of the fourth 
district of Oklahoma Territory." He said, 
" Oh, I know what your avocation is. I mean 
something more important. What are you re- 
ligiously ? " I hung my head for a time and 
said, "That is a pretty straight question." 
" Yes, I know it is ; I meant it to be." " Well, 
sir, I presume if I were to be called anything, 
it would be a Christian, but really, I am noth- 
ing." " That is exactly what I thought ; I 
made up my mind some time ago you were 
nothing. Every man without some religious 
belief can well call himself nothing. Why, 
Burke, I am surprised at you ; you are worse 
than the heathen who worships the going down 
of the sun ; he thinks there is a something to 
him that is immortal, but when a man has no 
better opinion of himself than that he is only 
on a level with the beast, having no form of 
worship, no defined idea as to his future state, 
he is, unquestionably, a blank. I don't think 
you are worthy to hold a position of trust. I 
am a Jew. I thank God I believe something, 
and as a Jew, I let my flag wave. I think I 
have a soul, and I am making provision for 
that soul. If you believe Jesus is the Son of 



The Fool 97 

God, why don't you get out and follow Him 
like a man ? " 

Now I want to ask you people to-night how 
are you going to get around it ? You can 
go to any fair-minded infidel — well, I don't be- 
lieve the word fair is fair — you can go to any 
infidel who has a grain of reason about him, 
and he will confess to you that the churches are 
doing good, and that Christianity is a good 
thing for society, and that sin is degrading. 
Now you listen to this ; if he admits that, and 
if he were a good man at heart, he ought to be 
willing to get on that side and help society, 
for he couldn't possibly lose anything, and he 
could do some good. I tell you what is the 
matter; the heart is absolutely corrupt, and 
" out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 
speaketh." It is the corruption of the heart 
that makes him a " fool." I hope you can all 
understand me; I am trying to use language 
that will not call for an interpreter. Don't 
forget my text — Lord, burn it down into those 
black putrefying hearts — " The fool hath said 
in his heart there is no God." 

If the Christian is right he gains everything. 
If he is wrong he is a winner, even if all ends 
at the grave. If the infidel is wrong he loses 
here and through eternity, and no reasonable 
man is going to take such chances. Tou say 
you cannot understand it ; well, you can see this 



98 Revival Addresses 

much ; Jesus teaches what is right, and Satan 
what is wrong, for his teachings bring shame, 
sorrow and disgrace; you can see that; you 
have no excuse ; God knows it and passes you 
up by calling you a fool, and that settles you 
here and hereafter unless you show a different 
spirit. When I was a government officer, I 
took about fifteen men with me, deputy United 
States marshals and posse men, and went to the 
Creek country on an endeavour trip. Some of 
you men know what that means ; endeavour 
to locate and capture those who had violated 
United States statutory laws. I established 
headquarters in the wild Indian country, and 
the first morning I sent the men out in pairs, 
giving them warrants and telling them to arrest 
and bring them into camps. I finally told a 
man whose name was Lewis to hitch up the big 
roans to a certain hack and we would go down 
below Sapulpa and get three men. We put in 
our Winchesters, our shackles and handcuffs, 
put in feed, and food, and we got aboard and 
drove away. That day we took dinner and fed 
at a stream ; in the afternoon I was driving and 
our conversation finally drifted to the Bible ; it 
turned out that he was an infidel and I also 
claimed to be. He was well versed in Tom 
Payne's " Age of Season," and I had read it, 
and it was wonderful how we displayed our 
great wisdom. Lewis would make a long ar- 



The Fool 99 

gument, and I would say, " Yes, yes, that is 
right, Lewis ; that is exactly the way I look at 
it." No doubt about our wisdom for we were 
really very cute ; we were masterly and deep. 
Lewis said his father and mother were mem- 
bers of the Baptist Church in northwest Mis- 
souri, that his father was a deacon in the Bap- 
tist Church, and that if there w^as anything in 
it they were all right but he didn't believe 
there was a thing in it. I said, "Yes, my 
mother is a Baptist, and my father died a dea- 
con in the Baptist Church, and if there is a 
heaven he has certainly gone there." "Yes, 
Burke, that is all right ; they are honest in it, 
but we have been educated and have travelled a 
good deal and we know better." "Yes, yes, 
that is right, Lewis ; we certainly do know bet- 
ter." I tell you, my friends, there were two 
mighty smart men. We looked up the road 
and saw a lonely horseman coming. When he 
met us he drew rein and held up his hand for 
us to stop. We did so and he introduced him- 
self. He then said, " Gentlemen, I take it that 
you are government officers." "We are." 
" Well, I am glad I met you because I expect 
I have saved your lives." "How is that?" 
" Do you know where the canyons are down 
here, about three or four miles ahead of you off 
to the right of the road ? " " Yes, we know 
about where they are." "Well then, let me 



100 Revival Addresses 

tell you, the Dalton and Doolin gang is camped 
there, and every evening about sundown they 
strike this road and go to Sapulpa to get whis- 
key and to drink and carouse, and if you at- 
tempt to go on you know they are bound to 
get you." I will say for the information of 
you people that this was a time when that 
gang was actually making target practice out 
of deputy United States marshals, and the 
Doolin and Dalton gang was about the worst 
band of outlaws the West has ever known. I 
could tell this man was telling the truth for he 
was an honest farmer living in old Oklahoma 
and was very much excited. He said, " Now, 
men, it means death for you to go on, and you 
take my advice and turn round and go right 
back." He rode on and left us sitting in that 
hack. I sighed, Lewis sighed, then we both 
sighed. "We had quit talking infidelity. I be- 
gan to think about it. If I go on we will be 
killed. If I turn back and I show the white 
feather, it will leak out and I will lose my posi- 
tion. So I could see a coffin on one side and 
my job on the other, so my mind ran, job, cof- 
fin, job, coffin. There are sixteen of them the 
farmer said, and it would take me several days 
to frame up a raid and before that they would 
be gone. Finally I took all the warrants out 
of my pocket and began to look through them. 
Lewis said, "What are you doing?" "lam 



The Fool 101 

looking to see if I have any warrants for any 
of those fellows." "Why, Burke, you don't 
intend to try to arrest them, do you ? " " No, 
I intend to tear them up if I have any." 

At last I came to this decision : I am not 
going back. I never did turn back in my 
life, and I am not going to do it now. I may 
be killed, but if I go back I will be disgraced 
and branded a coward, and there may be one 
chance in a thousand for me to escape by going 
on. So I began to cluck softly to the horses. 
Lewis said, " Burke, you are not going to drive 
on, are you ? " I said, " You hear me cluckin', 
don't you ? " I was afraid to cluck loud, for 
fear they would hear me. The horses started ; 
one of them sneezed, and I like to have jumped 
out of the hack. I never heard such a report. 
The hack struck a little stump, and rip, bang, 
bim, boom ; my, what a noise ! "We were not 
talking infidelity though. I would pull the 
horses to prevent running over another stump, 
and on the other side would run over a log. 
Well, I never heard such a racket, but, folks, 
we were not talking infidelity. Lewis at last 
spoke and said softly, " Burke, it looks like we 
are getting along mighty slow." It seemed to 
me like we were getting along mighty fast. 
The sun was about ready to make his bed in 
the golden west, and as I looked down to the 
right of the road, I saw two little log cabins ; 



io2 Revival Addresses 

one we would call the big house and the other 
the kitchen. I saw they were inhabited. I 
said, " Lewis, I see somebody lives there ; let's 
go and stay all night." " ISTow, Burke," said 
Lewis, " I will have to take issue with you ; 
you know it is not more than a half mile to 
those canyons, and you know full well that the 
man living here is an outlaw himself and stands 
in with those outlaws and we won't be there 
two hours until he will manage to get word to 
those fellows that we are here, and you know 
the balance." " Yes, Lewis, I have thought 
of that ; I think that is about right, but if we 
go on you know they will get us ; that is set- 
tled, and, Lewis, we no doubt have at least one 
hundred rounds of cartridges, and you see 
that is a log house and we can shell out." 
" Well, if you want to go down and die all 
right, I will go with you ; but I don't know 
that it will be any special enjoyment to me 
to kill a half dozen men and then be killed 
myself ; but I will go with you." 

So we drove up close to the fence and I 
called out very softly, " Hello ! " " Not too 
loud, Burke." I then heard a noise like a cow 
walking, and a long, hump-shouldered man 
came to the door. He was nearly red headed 
and his hair stood out like bristles ; his beard 
looked to be about six weeks' growth, and he 
had on a yellow duck coat, and his trousers 



The Fool 103 

stuffed in his boots. I tell you, he was a hard- 
looking customer. I said, " Howdy." He 
said, " Howdy do ! " He had a voice as rasp- 
ing as a cross-cut saw. I said, " "We would like 
to get to stay all night." " Well, we are 
mighty porely fixed, but if you can put up 
with our fare, I guess you can stay ; drive on 
down thar to the lot and I will be out thar 
in a minute." We drove off, and I said, 
" Lewis, what do you think of that ? " He 
said, " Burke, that is the meanest looking man 
I ever saw." I said, " Yes, he is the meanest 
looking man 7" ever saw." We got out of the 
hack and I said, " Lewis, stay with your guns. 
Another thing, Lewis; we have got to take 
turn about watching that man. One watch 
while the other sleeps." "I don't know how 
you feel about this thing, Burke, but I don't 
feel like I would have any trouble in staying 
awake all night myself." And I can assure 
you that is the way I felt. We unharnessed 
and the man came from the house. When he 
had his back to me, I put my hand on my six- 
shooter to be sure it was ready for use. Lewis, 
too, looking at me, as much as said, " We have 
the old fellow spotted, and if he makes a crooked 
move we will perforate him with bullets." 

When the feed was put in the trough, our 
strange host said, " Now, gentlemen, come in 
the house as soon as you get ready." Lewis 



104 Revival Addresses 

and I held a counsel of war. I said, " Lewis, 
you put your Winchester on the right side of 
the big house door, next to the kitchen, and I 
will put mine on the left hand side ; so when the 
fight comes off we won't get mixed up on our 
weapons." That was agreed to, as also that 
we would not take off our six-shooters until 
we got ready to go to bed. "We went to the 
house, and the man said, " Gentlemen, do you 
want to wash?" I said, "Wash, Lewis." 
There on a sawed-off stump sat a pan, not much 
larger than a saucer, with some water in it. 
While Lewis was washing, I looked down to 
my right and there stood two little yellow- 
headed, freckle-faced girls. I looked up in 
the kitchen door. " Howdy do, madam." 
There stood the ugliest woman I think I ever 
saw. I said to myself, " No wonder this man is 
an outlaw, because he couldn't get that woman 
in decent society in a hundred years." When 
Lewis turned from the wash pan, I caught his 
eye and winked and blinked and grinned and 
nodded my head towards that woman, and he 
grinned too. I washed my face and went into 
the big house and found an almost toothless 
comb, and a little looking-glass, and soon had 
myself looking pretty fair. We were then in- 
vited out to supper. The kitchen had a dirt 
floor and the chairs were three-legged stools 
without backs. The outlaw sat at the end of 



The Fool 105 

the table and I sat next to him to his left, and 
Lewis to my left, and the outlaw's wife at the 
other end, and the two little girls on the other 
side of the table. I at once turned over my 
plate, frontier style ; Lewis did the same thing, 
and I took my fork and reached over to get 
some meat. We expected to pay for what we 
ate and why not get at it ? I wasn't hungry, 
but I was anxious to get through with what lit- 
tle I was to eat ; but that outlaw, as we called 
him, raised up his hand and said, "Hold on, 
gentlemen; before we eat anything in this 
home, we always look to the Lord." You 
ought to have seen me flop that plate over, and 
that was the happiest flop I ever made. I put 
my nose on the back of my plate and that man 
began, "Heavenly Father, wouldst Thou for- 
give our sins ? Give us all thankful hearts for 
this food ; bless our company, and save us all, 
for Christ's sake. Amen." I looked up and 
there sat the prettiest white man I ever saw. 
I looked over at the children and they looked 
like two little angels fresh from heaven. I 
looked at the pleasant-faced wife, and there 
was the most beautiful woman I ever saw be- 
fore or since. I looked at Lewis and there was 
a smile pushing his ears back. Now, you people, 
listen to me. There was a load right there 
that rolled from my heart that no pen or 
tongue could portray in a hundred years. 



lo6 Revival Addresses 

Now what was it ? I tell you what it was ; 
there is that force within us called the im- 
mortal soul, and when the black angel, death, 
shoves this body of ours close to the grave and 
everywhere you look you see nothing but the 
shadows of despair, it is then that the soul cries 
out for help ; and you let a man walk up at 
that time and say, " I don't believe in God. 
Jesus Christ was an impostor " ; it is then that 
you want to slap that fool in the face, and cry 
out, " Get away, you vile serpent. I don't want 
to hear your putrid voice. I want to hear the 
voice of love. I want to hear the voice of 
faith. I want to meet that soul that is inter- 
linked with God through Christ." Oh, me, 
when you get to that place where hope for this 
body is at an end, it is then the soul gets to be 
master of the mind, and rest comes only from 
God. Man, you go where I have gone, see 
what I have seen, hear what I have heard, and 
feel what I have felt ; you will certainly be a 
believer. 

We ate rather heartily after that blessing. 
We left the table and walked into the other 
house, pulled off our six-shooters and threw 
them on the bed. Why did we do this ? Be- 
cause we were in the house where Jesus 
dwelled and we didn't need any guns. I said 
to Lewis, " Let's take a walk." Not a word 
was spoken until we had walked at least fifty 






The Fool 



107 



yards or more. I knew what he was thinking 
about, so I said, " Lewis, what do you think of 
that ? " "I think Lewis and Burke are two of 
the biggest fools in the United States." " It is 
pretty hard to turn down, isn't it?" "Hard 
to turn down ? Burke, that was the greatest 
sermon I ever heard in my life. I am so sorry I 
ever criticized the religion of my father and 
mother, and I tell you, Burke, when we get 
back to Perry you can have my commission 
back, for I am going back to my parents in 
Missouri and tell them that their religion is my 
religion, and I am going to serve God as long 
as I live ; and, Burke, if you don't accept after 
hearing that prayer I will be surprised at you." 
Now, people, there happened to be one honest 
skeptic. You may find one in a thousand who 
is honest. Men are usually skeptics because 
they are so contemptibly corrupt and rotten at 
heart they are ashamed to confess they believe 
in Christ. I saw Lewis was in earnest and we 
walked back pretty soon, and found the family 
were at the big house and the children were 
tucked away in a trundle bed and the bed they 
expected us to occupy had been curtained off. 
The man and his wife were sitting waiting for 
us. I knew then we had been gone much 
longer than we thought. The man had a Bible 
in his lap, and said, " Gentlemen, we always 
read a chapter and have prayers before we re- 



108 Revival Addresses 

tire ; but if you want to go to bed now, you can 
go behind them curtains there and retire ; that 
is the best we can do for you. I came down 
here from Arkansas and took a lease, and am 
tryin' to git a start before my children git very 
big, and we brought our religion along with us. 
If you are not too tired we would be glad for 
you to join us ; but if you are, you can go to 
bed and we won't disturb you ; we will read to 
ourselves and pray secretly." I said, "We 
would be pleased to join you, sir." He read a 
long chapter. He was not a good reader. He 
mispronounced some words and didn't heed the 
stops, but it did sound good to me. He then 
said, " Let's all kneel." Somehow my knees 
were oiled for the occasion, and here goes an 
infidel, chug, chug, on his knees. Lewis 
kneeled too. The man's prayer was awkward 
and clumsy at first, but, I said to myself, it 
sounds mighty good anyhow. 

But, folks, that man finally began to warm 
up in that prayer. " Dear Father, we must not 
forget our guests ; we don't know them, Lord, 
but if they have fathers and mothers, bless 
them. If they have wives and children, bless 
them. If they are not Christians, Lord, put it 
into their hearts to be Christians." I began to 
wiggle on my knees. I wanted to shout, 
" Glory to God." I was feeling mighty com- 
fortable about that time. I said in my heart, 



The Fool 109 

" I believe he is going to drag me through the 
gates in spite of all I can do." I was by this 
time blubbering, and Lewis was playing second 
fiddle. My, but I did feel safe and good. 
Finally he said Amen. And we all stood up, 
Lewis and I both using our handkerchiefs dry- 
ing our eyes, when the man spoke up and 
said, " Why, gentlemen, are you Christians ? " 
Lewis said, " I am." Well, glory to God, he 
was saved. He was brave and honourable ; he 
had been convinced and had accepted. We 
went to bed, and Lewis went to sleep very 
quickly and I soon followed suit. 

Now listen, " A fool's mouth is his destruc- 
tion, and his lips are the snare of his soul." If 
that man had that evening spoken an oath in- 
stead of a prayer, we would have watched him 
like a hawk watching a gun, and if he had 
made a crooked step, we would have arrested 
him, and taken him to Guthrie, and the strong 
arm of the government would have backed us 
up. If we had killed him, we would have been 
credited with killing an outlaw, but he spoke 
the words of wisdom and safety came to all. 

The next day we went on and got our three 
men. The outlaws were in that country sure 
enough, but they stayed in hiding in the day- 
time. When we got back to Perry, Lewis 
came to my office and threw down his commis- 
sion and said, " Burke, I am going to leave for 



no Revival Addresses 

my old Missouri home, and here is my commis- 
sion." I said, " Lewis, keep it, and remember 
me by it." " Burke, I wish you had time to 
correspond with me but you haven't. I want 
you to serve God. I don't care where you find 
me on this earth, I will be found on the Lord's 
side ; and, Burke, I will pray for you as long as 
I live." And with tear-stained cheeks, Lewis 
left me. 

" The fool hath said in his heart there is no 
God." Think of my text ; the main thought 
there is the word " fool." 

I give you an incident I got from Hastings' 
pen. Once there was a ship out at sea near the 
South Sea Islands ; and on that ship was a mis- 
sionary lady. She went to the captain of the 
boat to talk to him, but he refused to hear her. 
He said he didn't believe there was a God ; he 
didn't think there was a Christ. No heaven, 
no hell, and he had no soul. The lady said to 
him, " I will pray for you." " I don't need 
your prayers ; I don't believe in your prayers," 
he replied. That night the ship was wrecked 
on one of the islands. The captain and twenty- 
nine others escaped. The morning came, and 
the captain took his bearings, and said, "We 
had just as well have perished at sea because 
we are lost." " What is the matter ? " " We 
are cast out on a Cannibal Island, and before the 
sun goes down we will all be boiling in copper 



The Fool in 

kettles. I dread a death like that. Now, you 
people stay here and I will climb to the top of 
that hill and will look over in the valley be- 
yond to see what there is." I can see that 
atheist as he climbs up that hill. "When he 
gets to the top, I can see him look over in the 
valley beyond. He rubs his eyes and looks 
again. He then turns back and faces the crowd 
of twenty-nine down near the ocean. He 
pulled out his handkerchief and began to wave 
it towards them and cry out, " Say, people, can 
you hear me?" "Yes, we can hear you." 
" Come on up here ; we are perfectly safe ; 
there is no danger. Over yonder in the valley 
is a church spire ! " Oh, me, he didn't believe 
in God or Christ, but he did believe in church 
spires. 

Can you see the wisdom in my text ? " The 
fool hath said in his heart there is no God." 
It is only the fool who says this. 



"Forsaken and Alone " 

"Then saith He unfeo them, My soul is exceeding sor- 
rowful, even unto death; tarry ye here and watch with 
Me." — Matt. xxvi. 38. 

This is a portion of the story of Jesus in 
Gethsemane ; and really, I call it the most pa- 
thetic story in all history. Jesus is in the flesh, 
and all flesh demands sympathy in time of dis- 
tress. These hearts of ours must have sympa- 
thy. When we get to the place where we can- 
not get human sympathy in time of sorrow a 
desire to commit suicide is liable to overtake us. 
When I read of a suicide, I often say, " Driven 
to insanity for want of love and sympathy." 

See the maddened bull that the matador has 
fatally stabbed ; he often walks meekly up and 
lovingly licks his conqueror's hand, so anxious 
is he in his distress for sympathy. And the 
higher we reach in animal life the greater the 
demand for sympathy. The most refined lady 
under the sound of my voice requires the most 
sympathy, and all true refinement comes from 
the cultivation of the divinity in us. The soul 
that is blackened with depravity is much less 

112 



" Forsaken and Alone " 113 

appreciative of love and sympathy than the one 
who leads a Christlike life. 

There sits a man back there who is coarse 
and vulgar, and has become so stupefied by sin 
that he is incapacitated to appreciate his little 
wife whose life is perfumed with love and de- 
votion to her Saviour. If he did he would long 
since have yielded to the influence of her love and 
prayers, yet when that man with all his blight 
reaches his Gethsemane, his soul cries for help. 

Jesus Christ was refinement personified. He 
is absolute royalty. He is the Prince of heaven, 
but at this time He is in the flesh, and is in 
Gethsemane. 

Now let us take the bearings of those twelve 
disciples, and you make your own decision as 
to their deep fidelity to Jesus in His hours of 
sorrow. First, Judas has forsaken Him, and 
has gone to betray Him. Jesus leaves eight 
down yonder and takes Peter, James and John 
away from the others, and " began to be sor- 
rowful and very heavy." " Then saith He unto 
them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto 
death ; tarry ye here, and watch with Me." 

The more refinement we have the less in- 
clined are we to afflict others with our sor- 
rows. The coarse man and woman will pour 
their afflictions and heart-aches into the ears of 
every passer-by, while the refined only select 
their closest friends. 



114 Revival Addresses 

Now listen ; one has forsaken Him ; He 
leaves eight and takes Peter, James and John, 
and pours out His deep sorrow before them. 
Why does Jesus do that ? Because He knows 
Peter, James and John loved Him best. They 
have been His most faithful followers ; they 
had even been with Him on the Mount of 
Transfiguration, and He naturally thought if 
anybody on earth would tarry and watch with 
Him it would be these. 

JSTow remember ; one has forsaken Him and 
has gone to betray Him for thirty pieces of 
silver ; going to betray Him for cash ! About 
fifteen dollars, think of it ! The other eight 
He leaves behind. "Why? Because Jesus 
knew them. He knew that should He confide 
in them and tell of His deep distress, they 
would treat it with indifference, and indiffer- 
ence is the cruelest of cruel treatment. Surely 
Peter, James and John will not be indifferent, 
for they had been His closest companions. So 
Jesus unbosoms Himself to them. 

" And He went a little farther, and fell on 
His face, and prayed, saying, O My Father, if 
it be possible let this cup pass from Me, never- 
theless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." And 
lo, when Jesus returned He found His three 
faithful disciples asleep. So now you know 
the situation; one gone to betray Him, eight 
down yonder sound asleep, and now His best 



"Forsaken and Alone" 115 

friends have gone to sleep also, and you find the 
Saviour of this world " forsaken and alone." 

I don't wonder much at Jesus sweating great 
drops of blood, because in His agony there 
was no one to tarry and watch with Him. 
Oh, me, how often in life we confide our sor- 
rows to those we think love us and they never 
lose a single moment's sleep watching and pray- 
ing with us. 

You sit there and say it is too bad that Jesus 
had no one to watch with Him. But let's 
change this picture and see how closely you 
tarry and watch. 

I often think that if ever any man reaches 
Gethsemane it is the earnest, honest pastor. 
You often hear people say, " Don't worry," and 
I have seen in my work in two churches hang- 
ing over the pulpit the motto, " Don't worry." 
As soon as I saw those words, I said, " No wonder 
this church is dead ; because you show me the 
pastor who never worries and I will show you 
a failure. If a man is called to preach, he is 
going to be borne down by the weight of im- 
mortal souls. Jesus worried, Paul worried, 
Knox worried, Wesley worried, Spurgeon wor- 
ried, Moody worried, and, preachers, if God 
called you into His vineyard, you worry. I 
imagine Jesus worried when He wept over 
Jerusalem. I tell you the spirit-filled pastor 
will reach his Gethsemane. And say, you 



li6 Revival Addresses 

church-members, when your pastor reaches his 
Gethsemane, how many of you will tarry and 
watch by his side ? " 

There is a pastor who is borne down by the 
great weight of immortal souls. He feels the 
responsibility of their eternal welfare resting on 
his shoulders. The situation is serious. Men 
are in the broad road that leads to hell and he 
must do something to check them if he can. 
He lies awake at night ; he rolls and tosses and 
prays for light. He at last decides to send for 
an evangelist to aid him in leading them to 
Jesus. He then begins to look for Peter, James 
and John, to tarry and watch with him. Lead- 
ing souls to Christ is the most serious and soul- 
trying work under the sun, and many a pastor 
grows emaciated and thin trying to keep his 
church spiritual and lead others to Christ. 

In looking for the faithful ones to tarry, to 
pray, and to watch, is the pastor safe in select- 
ing you, or would you prefer staying with the 
eight and so not be disturbed ? 

Did you know there were very few church- 
members who will tarry in Gethsemane with 
the pastor ? Did you know most of you belong 
to the bunch of eight, sound asleep ? Get your 
rule of proportion, eight, three, one. One has 
gone to betray Him, three He confides in, and 
eight are dead to the world. The devil could 
keep Judas awake, but the Lord couldn't keep 



"Forsaken and Alone" 117 

the others awake. My God, turn on the light. 
Lord, turn on the power, and let these church- 
members see their sleepy condition. 

Sometimes when I go to a place to hold a 
meeting, the pastor will sit by my side and say, 
" Now there comes a woman that is pure gold ; 
she is one of my faithful ones ; she stands by the 
church, she attends every service, she goes to 
prayer-meeting, it makes no difference how wet 
or cold. She is always at Sunday-school and at 
church. I love to counsel with her. Now 
there comes another woman ; she is a member 
of my church, but I cannot depend on her ; she 
never goes to prayer-meeting and usually only 
attends one service on Sunday." Well, we al- 
ways have a band of " onesters " in every 
church, — once a week. Go out in dress parade 
on Sunday mornings. Another class walk out 
to church on Sunday nights ; they get so tired 
staying at home they want some place to spend 
the evening. Oh, me, so many people in the 
church who have never gone into Gethsemane 
with Jesus. They are willing to serve Jesus if 
they can go forth on " flowery beds of ease ; 
let others fight to win the prize and sail through 
bloody seas." It takes energy, it takes prayer, 
it takes sacrifice, it takes tarrying, it takes 
watching, it takes patience, forbearance and, if 
necessary, suffering, to get to the place where 
God can use you in His vineyard. 



Ii8 Revival Addresses 

I see crowds flocking into a great depart- 
ment store ; you see there evidences of great 
wealth ; you see yonder the owner, who is re- 
puted to be worth three millions. You say, 
" I envy him because he has such an easy time ; 
he is so rich and I am so poor. I do wish I had 
half his wealth. 55 But hold on, my friend. 
Are you willing to pay the price ? Are you 
willing to make the sacrifices ? That man be- 
gan a porter in a store for Mr. A. He got a 
salary of four dollars per week, and did his 
own cooking, mended his own clothes, went 
poorly clad, stayed in his room at nights and 
read useful books. He worked hard, was on 
hand early and stayed late. He did the work 
other boys wouldn 5 t do, he learned the business 
from the garbage barrel, step by step, until he 
became an expert in handling silks and furs. 
Are you willing to pay the price ? 

There is a great lawyer ; you hear him make 
a master speech. He wins a noted case and 
receives a fee of fifty thousand dollars; you 
envy him and say, " He has an easy time, has a 
great record and is lucky, 55 etc. You wish you 
had half his ability and his cash. Did you ever 
look to see what it cost him ? He was once a 
poor boy with only limited advantages. By 
his dim light he studied until two o 5 clock in the 
morning. He spent years of hard study before 
he was admitted to the bar. His trials in his 



" Forsaken and Alone " 119 

early practice were almost too hard for human 
endurance. Several times thrown out of court 
through error — broken-hearted and penniless, 
he would struggle on. He never had the cash 
to go to shows, to theatres or to Saratoga for 
tie needed recreation. He toiled on, and while 
o'her lawyers rode behind fancy spans and de- 
serted their libraries, he kept digging, and now 
is called the prince of lawyers. Are you will- 
ing to pay the price ? 

Yonder stands a preacher ; he has just closed 
a master sermon. You sat spellbound under 
his earnestness and his oratory ; you say you 
wish you had half of his power and his ability ; 
but look back some years. Y 7 ou see him in 
poverty, doing his own washing, cooking his 
own potatoes, and with his old worn Bible, and 
his seedy clothes he walks twenty miles to 
preach a sermon. People get up and leave him 
and never give him a word of encouragement. 
He sees some fall asleep during his sermon. He 
goes to the forest and speaks to the trees, and 
spends hours before the mirror learning just 
how to move to hold attention. He falls on 
his face and cries, " Oh, God, give me power to 
reach my hearers ; anoint me with Thy Spirit 
that every word may penetrate." For years he 
toils and prays to become master of the situa- 
tion, and to be able to sway the multitudes, and 
is at last called a prince in oratory and power. 



120 Revival Addresses 

You envy him, do you ? Well, are you willing 
to pay the price ? 

" There is no great achievement without grea< 
labour." There sits a woman who belongs to 
society ; sitting close to her is another woman 
whose face shines like the morning sun. Angeb 
seem to clap their hands and dance on the wings 
of her expression. The society woman sajs, 
" I wish I was half as good as she, and enjoyed 
myself half as well." But, woman, a jew 
nights ago you passed by this woman's house on 
your way to a card party. I wish you had 
walked up to the window of her room and 
peeped under those curtains ; you would have 
seen her with the dear old Bible in her lap read- 
ing aloud and instructing her precious children 
about Jesus in Gethsemane. Look at her dry- 
ing her eyes and hear her say, " Children, He 
suffered it all for us." Then see her kneel and 
hear her pray, " Oh, God, help me to train my 
blessed children to love Jesus, and to know and 
feel His great suffering foi their sake. Oh, 
Lord, help me to love to linger with Jesus in 
His agony, that I may be able to exercise that 
love and patience towards my children that they 
may fully know there is a sublime reality in 
Thy wonderful love." Oh, woman, are you 
willing to pay the price ? 

Almighty God, turn in the power, and help 
us to know that to feast and to rejoice, and to 



" Forsaken and Alone " 121 

be able to shine, we must be willing to go into 
Gethsemane and tarry and watch with Jesus. I 
was never worth a copper, figuratively speaking, 
in winning souls to Christ until I got to the 
place I could tarry with Jesus in Gethsemane. 

Don't forget the disciples ; one has gone to 
betray Him, eight sound asleep, and Peter, 
James and John too tired to watch with the 
Son of God. Think of it ; the devil could 
easily keep Judas awake, or in other words he 
could stay awake for Satan, but not one could 
stay awake for the Son of God. Lord, turn in 
the power, and may we all find peace, sweet 
peace, and be willing to tarry with Jesus. 

I am actually ashamed of some of you 
church-members. You say you don't believe in 
responding to propositions ; you have never 
been to Gethsemane is the trouble. You say 
you don't believe in testifying ; go down yonder 
to Gethsemane and tarry with Jesus for a 
while and you will love to testify. You say 
you don't believe in revivals ; go and tarry 
with Jesus and you will love revivals. You 
say you don't love the old fogey, old time re- 
ligion that Steve Burke preaches ; go to Geth- 
semane with Jesus and you will declare with 
all your heart, " There is no other kind." 

Oh, Lord, help us to be willing to abide with 
Jesus. When Mr. Hobbs and I were carrying 
on a revival at Sallisaw, Oklahoma, I preached 



122 Revival Addresses 

on this text one Sunday at eleven o'clock, and 
sitting in front of me was an old blind Indian 
woman. During the sermon she became deeply- 
affected and wept. "When I closed the service, 
she came feeling her way towards the pulpit, 
and said, " I want to find one of those preach- 
ers." She finally found Mr. Hobbs, and held 
him by the hand while tears streamed down 
her face and she said, " Oh, Mr. Hobbs ! my 
blessed Jesus, my dear Saviour, how my heart 
bleeds for Him to-day. I am willing to tarry 
with Him in Gethsemane." Thank God for 
that spirit. That poor old Indian woman got 
a blessing that day because she was willing to 
tarry with Jesus. Oh, Lord, touch our hearts 
to-day and may we all for a while tarry with 
our Saviour in the garden. Our power in the 
service of our Master depends on our willing- 
ness to tarry by His side. The difference in 
our power for good comes from our degree of 
willingness to suffer with Him. 

As preachers we depend entirely too much 
upon our mental ability to sway the people, and 
not on the power we get from lingering by His 
side. I have seen in the pulpit mental giants, 
but spiritually they were failures all because they 
were not willing to tarry with Him. We have 
thousands of preachers who are castaways be- 
cause they seek to tarry with their congrega- 
tion and not with Jesus. 



"Forsaken and Alone" 123 

" Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord 
and He shall lift you up." When I find I am 
getting to the place where I am not reaching 
the people, I hasten to the garden and fall on 
my face by the side of Jesus. Almighty God, 
wake up these sleepy souls of ours, and enable 
us to get a blessing to-day by suffering with 
our blessed Saviour. 

Eight here I want to comment a little on the 
real frailty of man. I meet almost every day 
some poor unhappy soul who is groping in 
darkness because of the frailty of some church- 
members. He finds a church-member who is 
a Judas, or one of the eight down yonder 
sound asleep, and he cries hypocrite, and 
thinks because he has found a sluggard in 
the church, he has a perfect right to turn his 
back on Jesus. But, man, it is not so; it is 
just as much your duty to go in the garden 
with Jesus as it is my duty. " Every one shall 
give an account of himself before the Lord." 
And for you to find an excuse to neglect Him 
or follow Him because you find impostors only 
bespeaks your narrowness, your cowardice and 
your ingratitude. Shame to language and to 
common sense, that you would become so vile 
and mean as to forsake your blessed Saviour 
because you find church-members asleep. 

If I were to look among men, even among 
preachers, for an ideal in the service of my 



124 Revival Addresses 

Master, I might backslide before the sun goes 
down, but that is no part of my moral and 
spiritual duty. I am to look to Jesus and when 
I get close to Him, I am then capable of sym- 
pathizing with the weak, and become qualified 
to show them their errors, and to let them know 
there is rest for them. Oh, me, the lazy- 
minded and sluggish soul never gets close to 
Jesus, because he is not willing to pay the 
price. You quit your finding fault and go out 
yonder with Jesus and tarry with Him and you 
will get a blessing. 

You long-faced hypocrite outside of the 
church, quit your criticizing and go out and 
tarry for a while, and you will be ashamed of 
your criticism. You say there is too much 
form and style in the church ; yes, I agree with 
you, but Jesus is not to blame. You get in the 
church and do your duty, and you won't have 
but few grievances. You will always find a 
few in every church "who have not bowed 
their knee to Baal," and if you can see these 
things so plainly get in the church and be one 
of the select few. My friend, your excuses will 
fall flat in the judgment ; the trouble with you 
is you are not willing to pay the price ; you 
try to justify yourself, because somebody else 
is asleep. I would to God some of you church- 
members would wake up and get out of the 
way of that sinner there, for he is a weaker 



" Forsaken and Alone" 125 

character than you, and you are standing in his 
way. 

I want to say again that Jesus reached His 
Gethsemane, and so must we all; all of us 
reach our Gethsemane. Sorrow will come to 
us all ; we cannot avoid that. There sits a 
man out there that only God knows his deep 
sorrow. There sits a woman whose "soul is 
sorrowful even unto death." She doesn't know 
whom to go to ; if she did she would go. We 
find so very few who will sympathize with us 
in time of deep sorrow. 

There sits a woman whose troubles are too 
great for human endurance, and yet so sacred ; 
she shudders to think of mentioning them. To 
whom can she go ? Oh, Lord, help us. Where 
can we go, and to whom, when we get to 
Gethsemane ? Many a good woman has died 
with a broken heart because there was no one 
to tarry and watch with her in time of trouble. 
There is a something about deep sorrow that 
induces the soul to cry for sympathy beyond 
kindred ties. 

When we see Jesus in Gethsemane, He 
looked not only to His Father for sympathy ; 
He wanted the sympathy also of Peter, James 
and John. 

If I am in trouble, I know my mother will 
stick to me and sympathize ; so will my sister 
and so will my children. But oh, me, is there 



126 Revival Addresses 

enough in me to induce a friend to tarry by 
me while I suffer ? And when I fail to find 
such a friend life surely has proven to all 
present appearances a failure, and one wants to 
cry out, " Forsaken and alone." 

A few years ago, I met a lady who had quit her 
husband because of his coarse and vulgar brutal- 
ity caused by dissipation. The husband dogged 
the life out of her, tantalizing and abusing her, 
and making all kinds of threats if she didn't re- 
turn to him. The woman had become almost 
insane through fear and worry. One day she 
came to me and told her whole story, and said, 
" Brother Burke, if I cannot get relief I will 
die. I am afraid of him, and he says if any 
man advises me, or attempts to help me, he 
will kill me and the man also. I don't know 
where to go, or what to do, and I have come 
to you for advice ; and, Mr. Burke, please don't 
turn me away, for I have confidence in you. I 
cannot live with him, I never expect to do that ; 
but I want to know whether I should stay here 
and face all his threats or go where he can 
never find me and live among strangers." I 
told her I couldn't think of advising her in her 
domestic affairs. I shall never forget the wail 
of despair of that poor woman. I shall never 
forget that helpless expression. I tell you that 
face haunts me still. She went her way ; her 
husband kept on tantalizing her, and in about 



"Forsaken and Alone" 127 

one month from the time she came to me she 
committed suicide. She couldn't stand the 
strain ; her troubles were too great. She was 
a proud, high-minded woman and her husband 
had deceived her and disappointed her. She 
was dragged to her Gethsemane, and no one to 
tarry and watch with her, and her suffering 
drove her insane. I tell you honestly, I will 
never do it again. I tell you emphatically that 
when I heard of her death, I felt a sting of 
guilt creeping over me, and I feel it to-day; 
and I promised God then that in the future 
when I found a soul in Gethsemane and that 
soul appeals to me for help with a cause as just 
as hers, I will tarry and watch and advise if it 
costs me my life. God help us to be brave and 
ask ourselves, What would Jesus have done 
under such circumstances ? 

I tell you, when your heart is breaking, it is 
not the peal of this organ you need. The songs 
of Zion fail to alleviate that pain, but what you 
want is some true, brave and noble heart to 
stand and look you in the eye and say, " I sym- 
pathize with you ; I will tarry and watch with 
you." 

I was on the train one time on my way from 
Lofkin, going towards Houston, and on that 
train was a young mother, who had a very sick 
baby. I could see the poor woman was in 
deep distress. I could see a motherly old 



128 



Revival Addresses 



woman go to her occasionally and try to com- 
fort her. I felt for that young mother as she 
sat there looking continually into the face of 
her sick babe. I said in my heart that 
woman's " soul is exceeding sorrowful." But 
that sorrow finally reached its climax, for that 
baby breathed its last, and there went up 
screams and wails that brought many a tear 
from passengers. I hastened to her side, and 
asked her to tell her story, and in the mean- 
time had told her my name and that I was an 
evangelist. She said she had heard of me. 
She told me her husband was a poor man and 
had gone to Houston to get work and had se- 
cured a position at rather a small salary. Her 
baby got sick and she had written and told 
him about it. " My husband sent me enough 
money to get to Houston and wrote to me to 
come at once ; and, Brother Burke, this is the 
result ; my babj^ is dead, and we haven't a cent 
to bury it, and we are among strangers." I 
told her to wait and be patient. I took my 
hat in hand and went through the coaches tell- 
ing that sad story. Men and women began to 
throw cash into that hat, and when I got 
through I counted out to her something over 
sixty-seven dollars, telling her that was enough 
to buy a burial lot and to get a casket and bury 
it decently. But when I started away that 
poor young mother grabbed me by the coat 



" Forsaken and Alone " 1 29 

and wailed out, "Oh, Brother Burke, don't 
leave me ; please don't leave me ! " 

Ah, people, she was in the garden and she 
wanted some one to tarry and watch with her. 

I tell you, man, woman, you must come to it. 
Your Gethsemane is just out yonder waiting 
for you. You can defy me, and scoff at the 
Gospel ; you can defy God to-day ; you can 
defy Jesus and the Holy Spirit ; you can defy 
the prayers of your old mother, of your wife, 
and the entreaty of your friends, but you can- 
not defy that garden ; you must pass through 
it on the way to your grave. 

There sits a man who defies the church. He 
scoffs at the religion of Christ. He calls me a 
crank, and says that all the preachers on earth 
cannot influence him. Look at him ; he thinks 
he deserves credit. He thinks he is a giant. 
But listen, God help you to listen ; yonder is 
that garden ; you are getting close to it. In a 
few days from now you are going to see that 
patient and tender wife breathe her last. Then, 
people, watch that man, as he goes to the 'phone 
and calls up her pastor. Listen. " Brother A, 
my soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death. 
I want you to come over and tarry and watch 
with me, and say good things about my blessed 
darling wife ; she is gone, and it looks like I 
cannot bear this suffering." Oh, me, he got to 
it. Never had any use for a preacher before 



130 Revival Addresses 

but now he cannot get along without one. Al- 
mighty God, turn in the power, and let some of 
these ungrateful cowards see themselves, and 
become willing to tarry with our dear Saviour. 

There sits a mother back there who ignores 
Jesus, and scoffs the idea of going with Him 
and tarrying by His side in His sorrow ; but, 
woman, you look out; for I tell you to-day 
that soon you will be in your Gethsemane. 
Ere long the hearse will back up to your door 
to take your child to the cemetery ; it will be 
then, oh, woman, that you will want some con- 
secrated preacher to tarry and watch with you. 
You will yearn for a good Christian mother to 
come to you and say, " I love you, I will tarry 
with you." 

Great God of mercy and love, wake up these 
sleepy hearts of ours and let us understand the 
power of love for one another, and through 
that love, dear Father, help us to make this 
world beautiful and life worth living. 

I can readily understand why a mother loves 
her child so deeply; it is because she went 
down close to the shadow of death for his sake, 
and the boy who fails to love his mother and 
respect her, we call him a contemptible black- 
hearted villain and we have a perfect right to 
do so. 

But in order to appreciate Him, we must go 
with Him in His grief and in His suffering. 



" Forsaken and Alone" 131 

The master sin is neglecting Christ, and then 
the next great sin is selfishness. We forget 
our neighbours. " Love thy neighbour as thy- 
self." At first glance this seems hard, but after 
all, it is practicing the golden rule. Selfishness 
makes us mechanical in all we do. 

A lady walks up to me and says, " My hus- 
band lies at the point of death." I will say, 
" Too bad ; I am sorry," but I don't ask her 
what I can do. I go away, never think of it 
again and go to sleep. I want to ask you if 
that is love. 

I tell you, my friends, our minds are ab- 
sorbed by the things of this world, and we can- 
not love the world and love Jesus, because He 
is not of the world. Neither can we love the 
world and be happy, because no selfish soul 
knows a thing about happiness. 

I would rather be an instrument in making 
some worthy heart happy by going into his 
Gethsemane than to live in a palace of gold 
hoarded by selfishness. I could harden my 
heart and stiffen my neck, steel my soul against 
sympathy and take every advantage in my 
power of my fellow man, and soon have money 
rusting in the bank, but when I did that, oh, 
me ! the restless nights, the poor appetite, the 
stinging conscience, the indigestion, the heart 
failure, the dyspepsia, the insomnia, the dogging 
out of life, the death, the hell. Oh, my God, 



132 Revival Addresses 

turn on the light and let us see that the real 
man, the real woman is the unselfish one. 

It is urged by some that there must be those 
who will look out for wealth, because we must 
prepare for great charities, public benefac- 
tions as well as wars, etc. I will say here, 
I have no objections to wealth. I would 
to God you all had more money, but ob- 
tained unselfishly, and that you could to-day 
meet your God and say you got every cent of 
it honourably. I do wish you could. Some 
men can truly serve God and be rich, but they 
know how they got their riches. 

Listen to me ; if every man and woman un- 
der the sound of my voice was willing to go 
into Gethsemane with Jesus, I tell you that 
court house out yonder and that jail could be 
torn down and the stones used in building 
stables for your horses. I tell you why it costs 
so much to run this government ; it is because 
of our selfishness and our sins. Tarry with 
Jesus, and we can make this old world a little 
heaven. 

Our sins keep the politicians employed, and 
keep the lawmakers busy. Listen ; no man on 
this earth, raised under Christian influences, 
can be happy and reject Christ, because if you 
are honourable, you despise ingratitude, and no 
man who is ungrateful can be happy. 

There sits a mother who recently sat over her 



"Forsaken and Alone" 133 

child day after day and night after night, until 
through her tarrying and watching she became 
so tired she could hardly drag her feet ; every 
limb ached, and her eyes burned but she 
watched on, suffering every pain her child suf- 
fered until through starvation and loss of sleep 
that mother became almost a skeleton and on 
the border of a collapse that would have meant 
death ; but to-day her child is in good health 
and that mother seems to have a double portion 
of love for him. Why is it ? It is because that 
mother suffered with him. 

Lord, help us to be willing to tarry, watch 
and suffer with our Saviour. Jesus went 
through the garden for our good and as far as 
I am concerned, I am glad He went that way, 
because I am purified and made better by 
tarrying. Jesus, " Forsaken and alone," think 
of it ! I beg you to think of it, and keep that 
picture before you. One has forsaken; eight 
down yonder ; and the three in whom He has 
confided have now gone to sleep. It is enough 
to make Jesus sweat great drops of blood. 
Oh, me ! I tell you, dear people, Jesus felt it. 
Did you ever get to the place through sorrow 
where you felt that all mankind had forsaken 
you ? And when you did, you also felt that 
God had forsaken jou. 

Some years ago I was in company with a 
preacher, and an old man 'phoned for us to call 



134 Revival Addresses 

on him. We went, and the story of sorrow he 
had to tell was something wonderful. When 
he had gotten through, he said finally, " I feel 
that God has forsaken me." The preacher 
with me rebuked him and told him that was a 
sin. But I say no, it is no sin, for Jesus felt the 
same thing. My blessed Saviour, deserted and 
then pinioned to the cross, hearing the jeers and 
scoffs, the guffaws of His enemies, cried out, 
" My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken 
Me ? " Jesus felt it ; He felt it. But, thank 
God, when we reach that degree of sorrow and 
cry out with a broken heart God is all attention. 

All heaven came to the rescue of Jesus, but 
too late for the body. Jesus died hard, because 
He felt forsaken. God grant that we may 
make our neighbour's dying pillow easier by 
tarrying with him in time of trouble. Let us 
love one another, and it will give youth to age, 
and elasticity to the feeble step ; it will give a 
glow to the cheek, smiles to the lips and a 
happy twinkle to the eye. We will live longer, 
be happier and more cheerful. Selfishness will 
die of fast consumption. We will grow in 
grace and knowledge. Envyings and jealousies 
will take wings and fly away, and we can walk 
down to death shouting, " Glory ! " 

The best place to get that love is out yonder 
in the garden with Jesus. Will you tarry and 
watch ? God help you to do it. 



VI 
" I Have Fought a Good Fight " 

11 For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my 
departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have 
finished my course, I have kept the faith : henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day : and 
not to me only, but unto all them also that love His ap- 
pearing." — 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7, 8. 

I really think there is a difference in being 
ready to be offered, and being prepared to be 
offered. Suppose I were to make this proposi- 
tion to this audience : All who are ready to be 
offered stand up. I doubt if a single individual 
would stand. But if I were to say all who are 
prepared stand up, I am satisfied many of you 
would stand. 

But Paul says, " I am now ready " ; present 
tense — now ready. Well, Paul, why are you 
ready ? Listen : " I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith." 
Three reasons given, the most important 
reason, " I have fought a good fight." 

I am always strengthened when I read after 
Paul, because I find he was in earnest, and was 

135 



136 Revival Addresses 

absolutely a fighter. Infidels claim they don't 
like Paul because he was an egotist. He 
bragged on himself too much, and paraded his 
sufferings and his trials, and that is not good 
taste. They claim, in short, that Paul blowed 
his own horn too much ; but they read him 
through the critic's eye, and they seek to find 
fault. I thank God the effect is exactly the op- 
posite on me. Paul was so in earnest you can 
feel his words, and instead of his words falling 
on me as the words of an egotist, every time I 
read after him I am convinced more and more 
of his meekness. In his experience he at all 
times simply states facts, and states them 
briefly. If Paul had always said good things 
about himself you could not blame the infidels 
for picking flaws, because from the eyes of the 
world it would no doubt have appeared a weak- 
ness ; but Paul forestalls all criticism by saying 
he had been the chief of sinners. That doesn't 
sound like egotism, does it ? 

I love a man that is actually in earnest. I 
can sit and listen to a man talk for two hours 
and not grow tired if I find he is in earnest. I 
never did like to hear a man talk mechanically. 
I do love to hear a man talk when he is full of 
his subject. Every word Paul writes makes 
me feel just like he was boiling over. It seems 
to come from the bottom of his heart. We 
find very few authors of books succeed. Only 






"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 137 

about five per cent, of the authors have ever 
made anything out of their books. The reason 
is they were not sufficiently full of their sub- 
ject. Their thoughts failed to reach the hearts 
of their readers. Too much theory and not 
enough burning fact. Paul was a man of ex- 
perience and he got the experience in hard 
battles, and he burns the truth home to the 
hearts of every honest reader. 

A man came to me once and said, " Burke, 
you are a wonderful fighter ; you must be a 
Paul the second when it comes to making a 
hard fight ; you have been waylaid and stones 
thrown at you ; you have been shot at in the 
pulpit, and shot at in your room twice, and 
have been threatened with death time and 
again, and still you fight on." Yes ; but, my 
brother, my fight is tame compared to Paul's. 
I feel, when I think of Paul, I am a very poor 
excuse, even though I have met opposition, and 
have tramped in rags to try to preach the 
Gospel. Now listen to Paul. "Are they 
ministers of Christ ? (I speak as a fool) I am 
more ; in labours more abundant, in stripes 
above measure, in prisons more frequent, in 
deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I 
forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten 
with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered 
shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in 
the deep ; in journeyings often, in perils of 



138 Revival Addresses 

waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine 
own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in 
perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, 
in perils in the sea, in perils among false 
brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in 
watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fast- 
ings often, in cold and nakedness." I have 
never received a stripe, never been touched 
with a rod or stoned, or cast into prison. I 
consider myself a very poor fighter. In fact 
I am often ashamed of the poor fight I am 
putting up. No wonder Paul could say, "I 
am now ready to be offered." 

Now the question comes, What kind of a 
fight are you putting up? Let me tell you 
this, when some of you come to press a dying 
pillow, you are going to look back, and instead 
of saying, " I have fought a good fight," you 
will say, " Failure ! failure ! " Life wasted and 
last opportunity gone. Oh, me ! how empty 
the hands of many mil be " when the roll is 
called up yonder." 

My father said that, during the Civil War, 
a poor fighter was looked upon with contempt, 
scorn and ridicule. The Church of Christ is 
called an army, and it is filled with officers and 
with privates, and I wish you would all take a 
swift inventory to-night and decide as to the 
kind of a fight you are putting up. Now 
listen ; I want you to help me to sing a song 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 139 

and as you sing it decide whether or not you 
are living it. Now, all together : 



" Am I a soldier of the cross, — 
A follower of the Lamb ? 
And shall I fear to own His cause, 
Or blush to speak His name ? 

11 Must I be carried to the skies, 
On flowery beds of ease, 
While others fight to win the prize, 
And sail through bloody seas ? 

u Are there no foes for me to face? 
Must I not stem the flood? 
Is this vile world a friend to grace, 
To help me on to God ? 

" Since I must fight if I would reign, 
Increase my courage, Lord ! 
I'll bear the toil, endure the pain, 
Supported by Thy word." 

Lord, help us all to examine ourselves. Let 
me tell you something ; if some of you business 
men had clerks who were putting up half as 
poor a fight for you as you are for your Master, 
you would fire them before to-morrow's sun 
goes down. You know you would. Don't 
you know it is a good thing for you that God 
is patient and long-suffering? You ladies 
listen. If your servants were to serve you 
half as slackly as you serve Jesus you would 
discharge them before breakfast in the morn- 



140 Revival Addresses 

ing. But Paul is able to say, " I have fought 
a good fight." 

Now I want to know what some of you 
people are doing to feel entitled to a reward 
over yonder? I see you here every night 
occupying a certain amount of space ; you 
simply sit there, that is all. You never testify, 
you never quote a verse of Scripture, you never 
sing, you never invite a soul to Christ, you 
never shake hands, you never come forward to 
a consecration service, you never kneel ; yet 
you belong to the church, and claim you expect 
to go to heaven. I find Paul's faith in Christ 
filled him with fight. The faith I have in 
Christ puts vim and fight in me, and you say 
by your actions that your faith takes all the 
fight out of you. 

God help that poor insignificant preacher 
who stands in front of a band of godless church- 
members, and tickles their ears by telling them 
that he doesn't think it necessary for church- 
members to testify, and that he believes in 
silence. I never heard of a preacher like that 
leading a soul to Christ in my life. That 
preacher is a back number. He is as dead as a 
door nail, and the pulpit would do better with- 
out him. I pray to see the day that all the 
mollycoddle, sissy preachers will be a thing of 
history. This is an age where we need fighters, 
and we must have fighters if we would win. 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 141 

You say you cannot testify ? Something the 
matter with your faith. I have faith in Jesus 
and I love Him, and I love to confess Him. 
When you testify for Jesus you are preaching, 
and in that short sermon you might lead a soul 
to Christ and get one star at least in your crown. 
I don't want to hear you brag about yourself. 
If you are purified and sanctified live it and let 
others find it out in your life. Don't get up 
and crow about it, for that isn't good taste, but 
do get up and tell something of how you love 
Jesus, say a word for Him, and don't put stress 
on your own purity. Job says, " If I justify 
myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me ; if I 
say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." 

We have about three distinct classes of 
church-members. I believe it was Sam Jones 
who originated the idea, and I find he is about 
correct. We have the first degree church- 
member, who proceeds about as follows. He 
will march up to the pastor and say, " My name 
is Canute Canuteson, and I want to join your 
church." " All right, Mr. Canuteson ; thank 
you." " Hold on ; Mrs. Canuteson wants to 
join." "All right, Mrs. Canuteson." "And 
John wants to join." " Well, that is good. I 
will put down John's name." " But hold on ; 
Mary wants to join." " Good. Mary, all 
right ; thank you." " And Jim wants to join." 
f ' Well, I have his name." " And Polly wants 



142 Revival Addresses 

to join, and Peggy wants to join." " Good, 
Mr. Canuteson. Now how many have you ? " 
" One, two, three, four, five, six, seven ; well, 
that is right. "Wife and I and all our children." 
They join the church, and are extended the 
right hand of church fellowship, and Mr. 
Canuteson goes back to the back end of the 
church and sits down and draws a deep breath 
and says, " I thank God it is all over." He 
conies in late at the services and becomes a 
chronic kicker and grumbler. He kicks at the 
sermons, he kicks at the length of the services, 
he kicks at the Sunday-school superintendent ; 
in fact, he kicks at everything. The little 
measly, warty thing in the church, finding fault. 
"When he is called upon to testify, he is really 
surprised. " The idea of calling on me to tes- 
tify. I presume you want the earth. I have 
done more for you than anybody else. I gave 
you seven members, and now you want us to 
testify." He is called on to pray, and he scoifs 
the idea. " ISTo, sir, I won't pray ; I have done 
my part ; you can do your own praying." They 
call on him to pay, but no, not a cent ; he 
won't pay ; and there he sits, a stumbling-block 
to the progress of the church. We find him 
wherever we go, the small, insignificant, do- 
nothing and pay-nothing church-member, with 
neither pride nor ambition. 

Then we have that class called the second de- 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 143 

gree member. He will pray, but he won't pay. 
You can hear him for two blocks praying for a 
real shaking up of these dry bones, but he never 
pays a cent. If you want to take the measure 
of men and women, just sit and watch the con- 
tribution baskets pass round. Now you watch. 
On one occasion I see a leading member of the 
church get up and say, " Brethren and sisters, 
we are now closing out the year, and we all 
know the pastor has done a great work ; I am 
in favour of raising a contribution of one hun- 
dred dollars as an addition to his salary. Amd 
now while they sing that blessed old song, 
i Jesus lover of my soul,' let the deacons pass 
the baskets, and let's all chip in liberally, and 
show our pastor our appreciation of his great 
work." The deacons line up, the song begins, 
and now look out there at that long-faced, sec- 
ond degree member. He knows the song by 
memory. He has sung it ever since he was a 
boy, but on this occasion he must use a song 
book. " Jesus lover of my soul, let me to Thy 
bosom fly." Look at him ; he keeps one eye on 
the basket and one on the song book. The 
basket comes nearer and the book draws closer 
to his face. " While the nearer waters roll, 
while the tempest still is high." Look, the 
basket is getting close to him, and he suddenly 
breaks down and covers his face with his book, 
and blubbers out : " Hide me, oh, my Saviour, 



144 Revival Addresses 

hide, till the storm of life is past ; safe into the 
haven guide, oh, receive my stingy soul at last." 
Now what are you going to do with a fellow 
like that ? Oh, me, how hard some folks work 
to beat the Lord out of a little cash. " I have 
fought a good fight." Am I locating you? 
What about your fight? Lord, turn in the 
power and help me locate some of these slug- 
gish, lazy, trifling, do-nothing, pay-nothing, 
stingy church-members. Lord, wake up the 
church ! If a half dozen of you flat-sitting 
church-members were to enter into any enter- 
prise for profit, your natural pride would 
prompt you to do your part, and if you didn't 
the others would freeze you out ; but you enter 
the church to do business for the Lord, and 
there you sit, neither testifying, praying or pay- 
ing, and call yourself a Christian. Shame ! 
Shame ! Do you imagine for a moment that 
your actions are not criticized ? 

I call on you to listen to my text : u I have 
fought a good fight." Lord, burn that text 
into the hearts of these godless church-mem- 
bers and before they sleep this night may they 
fall on their knees and confess their sins, and 
promise God they will roll up their sleeves and 
enter the fight. Man, you have crouched under 
the ammunition wagon long enough ; crawl out 
of there and get in line. Hear me. " I have 
fought a good fight." 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 145 

I find the third degree man accepts this 
Scripture as his year text : "I beseech you 
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, 
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, 
holy, acceptable unto God, which is your 
reasonable service." Now there is the Master 
Christian. He will testify, he will pay, and 
he will pray. He can say at the last moment, 
" I have fought a good fight." Lord, help us 
all to seek to be Master Christians. 

Now there sits a sinner who says in his 
heart, "I do enjoy this plain talk to church- 
members, for I know they need it. I am glad 
he is telling them the truth ; go after them, 
Burke ; that is the reason I am not a Christian ; 
there are so many in the church who are not 
doing their duty." Is that so ? You are glad 
I have located them, are you ? Well, let me 
see if I cannot locate you. I think I have you 
spotted and by the time I am through with you 
you will agree with me. I want to state first 
that it is just as much your duty to take a stand 
in the army of Christ as it is my duty or the 
duty of any Christian in this tabernacle. You 
are a wonderful man. You remind me of an 
experience I once had in a frontier town in the 
early days in Oklahoma. On one occasion 
about fifteen years ago, when I was Deputy 
United States Marshal in that country, I drove 
into a little frontier town, and in that town 



146 Revival Addresses 

were four merchants, who came to me and 
said, " Burke, we are glad you came, for there 
is a band of about nine outlaws camped up the 
creek and they are going to make a raid on our 
town and we want you to protect us." " All 
right, gentlemen; get your Winchesters and 
let's get up a bunch of men and we will give 
them a lively game while they are at it." 
" Oh, no, we don't want to get into the fight 
ourselves." " You don't ? Well, what do you 
want ? Do you want me to go out and be shot 
for your special benefit?" "Well, what we 
want is for you to manage to protect us; we 
don't want to fight ourselves." "Yes, I see. 
Well, you be quiet and I will see what I can 
do for you." I went to a blacksmith and 
asked him if he would help protect the town. 
He said he would. I got a liveryman and two 
drivers, and two or three labourers, and about 
four cowboys, and they got weapons and I felt 
I was ready for the attack. I went to the four 
merchants and said to them, " JSTow, you cow- 
ards, go on to your homes, and get back under 
the beds and tell your wives to stand at the 
doors and watch the thing come off. Tell 
them there are men out here who will protect 
your business and your homes, and for them to 
watch and see how things go. You men are 
pretty specimens of frontier life; haven't 
enough grit to help protect your wives and 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 147 

children. Now move out and don't show your 
heads around here, for we don't want cowards 
like you hanging around in the way." They 
all sneaked away but I don't know whether 
they went home or not. Anyhow the outlaws 
smelt danger and left camps. 

Now there is not a sinner here who doesn't 
agree with me that those men were not worthy 
of the title " Man." You have a contempt for 
them in your hearts. But you listen to me to- 
night. I am going to prove to you that you 
husbands and fathers who are serving Satan 
are right now acting the greater coward than 
those four merchants. 

The Church is represented as an army, " the 
army of the Lord," and that army is led by 
Christ, our general. On the other hand, we 
have Satan heading a band called "trans- 
gressors," and every sinner is lined up on his 
side. Christ says, " He that is not for Me is 
against Me." Jesus represents love, virtue, 
truth and sobriety, while Satan stands pat 
against all these. Jesus calls on you to take 
up your cross and follow Him, for we are going 
to attack Satan, and protect your homes. But 
you say, " Oh, no, I don't want to do that. I 
don't want to fight. I want you to do it. I 
want you to protect my wife and children. I 
want you to pray and battle against the 
devil's attacks, but we want you to excuse us. 



148 Revival Addresses 

We are willing for our wives to go into the 
Church and do what they can to help protect 
the children and to help protect society, but we 
simply haven't the nerve to enter into the con- 
test ; we would rather stay out here and watch 
you make the fight." My God ! turn on the 
light. You poor puny weak cowards. Listen 
to me ; God help you to listen to-night. You 
couldn't be persuaded to live in this town ten 
days if there were no churches here. You 
wouldn't raise your children here if there were 
no churches. You know that ; yet if all men 
were as cowardly as you, and had no more 
fight in them than you have, I tell you to-night 
there would not be a church on the face of this 
earth. We must have churches. You couldn't 
live in this city if you had no churches. With- 
out churches, without Christ, we have no civiliza- 
tion, and you are just as dependent upon the 
churches as the most consecrated Christian 
under the sound of my voice ; but here you sit 
to-night listening to me, out of Christ, out of 
the Church, your wife making a feeble fight to 
protect her children, and you, sir, haven't back- 
bone enough to get out and fire a single shot 
to help her in defense of that home. You are 
a pretty specimen to be called a man. 

My text is, "I have fought a good fight." 
Do you get it ? "I have fought a good fight." 
Let me tell you, and you hear me, that poor, 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 149 

puny, weak-kneed Canute Canuteson, who joined 
the church and then wouldn't pray or pay, is 
worth more than all of }^ou godless men put 
together, because he did have the nerve to get 
out and fire one shot at the enemy, and then 
fell back. I want to here give Mr. Canuteson 
credit for that much strength of character ; he 
at least struck one blow ; but, sir, you haven't 
had the grit to do that much, and you sit there, 
you lazy parasite, and criticize men because they 
don't stay in firing line all the time. I know 
your wife is proud of you, when she sees the 
husbands and fathers lined up on the side of 
Christ and the Church helping defend the com- 
munity and their own fireside while her hus- 
band hangs back and skulks in the brush and 
criticizes and abuses men and women because 
they are not better fighters, and afford his chil- 
dren better protection. Now aren't you satisfied 
your precious wife is real proud of you ? Will 
you look back yonder to that time when you 
wooed and won her, and when you told her you 
would love her and protect her ? She believed 
you, and when she walked to the altar with you 
she thought she was being made the bride of a 
hero. If any one had said to her, " He has no 
moral bravery," she would have felt insulted. 
But years have rolled away and God has given 
you children. She feels the responsibility and is 
doing what little she can for those children, and 



150 Revival Addresses 

there you sit by her side, wanting her to love 
you and obey you, and you haven't enough 
spunk to fire a single shot for Jesus. You say 
you don't feel like it. Why, you poor little 
fifteen-year-old girl! Well, I beg the girl's 
pardon; for you are worse than any fifteen- 
year-old girl. The word " Sissy " is too strong 
for you. You are a poor puny consumptive 
kitten, and I know your children blush for you. 

Now you hear me : I tell you, sir, there is a 
principle involved in this question that surmounts 
feeling as high as the heavens above the earth. 
There is so much principle involved in it, that 
no man of sound judgment ought to wait for 
a revival; he ought to see the point and fly 
to the church. The man who says he doesn't 
believe in the churches is already a heathen, 
and my sermon won't likely reach him, but I 
am talking to you men who admit it is a good 
thing to serve Christ, and who know it is im- 
possible to get along without the churches. I 
am talking to you, and may the Holy Spirit 
burn the truth home and God grant that you 
may have moral strength to quit Satan and line 
up on the side of Jesus. 

Have you forgotten my text ? Hear it again : 
" I have fought a good fight." Have I touched 
you yet ? If I haven't it is because you are 
dead. There sits a man who is getting angry. 
Well, thank God for that ; there is some hope 



" I Have Fought a Good Fight " ] 51 

for him. There sits another man who says he 
doesn't care. No hope for him, for he is too 
negative to get offended. JSTow you look up 
here at me. I don't give a rap if you are mad ; 
you can foam all you want to. I am stopping 
down at your best hotel ; call on me to-morrow 
and we will talk it over. I talk too straight, 
do I ? Well, your getting angry fails to take 
the sting of the eternal truth away from my 
remarks. God knows it is so, and you know it 
is so, and if Jesus Christ were here to-night 
He would stand here by my side and cry out, 
" You are telling the truth." 

My text is, " I have fought a good fight," 
and I am at it. This Bible says, " Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved 
and thy house." That was addressed to a man, 
but you and you and you have shifted it on to 
your wives. I want you, man, to hear this; 
suppose when you were courting your wife, you 
had made her this proposition : " Now, sweet- 
heart, I love you and I want to marry you but 
before you take me, I want you to fully under- 
stand me. I am not willing to enter the fight 
for Christ. I won't help protect the children 
should God give us any. I am willing for you 
to fight for them, and I want others to protect 
them, but I haven't the strength of character 
to do my duty. 1 will try to make you a living 
and provide for you, but I am going to live in 



152 Revival Addresses 

sin, and depend on others to fight for my home 
and for society. I believe it is all right, but I 
am too weak to defend you." Why, bless your 
heart, if you had talked to her that way she 
would not be your wife to-day and you know 
it. 'No man of pride wants his wife to think 
he is a sponger or a coward, but, sir, you are 
blazing out your own decree, and in the face of 
love, manhood, honour, truth and virtue. Your 
decree is written in bold print, " Ingratitude, 
cowardice." Lord, help that little patient wife 
and mother ! Lord, hear her prayers, and may 
her dream of those sweetheart days be verified 
in her husband shouldering arms for his own 
flesh and blood against the attack of the evil 
one. 

Men, listen ; I ask you in all candour, Would 
you live in this city if there was not a church 
in it ? If you say you would, you are an an- 
archist, and would also love to destroy our 
national flag. I tell you truly if you are against 
the Church you are against the constitution of 
the United States, and I cannot conceive of a 
more dangerous man. 

I do love a fighter. I always did admire a 
brave man. In this age of progress we have 
very little room for cowards. When Mr. Hobbs 
and I were in an Illinois town over two years 
ago, carrying on a meeting, there was a lawyer 
living in that town who had been elected 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 153 

county attorney. When elected, he moved his 
family to the county seat town, but after living 
there for a few months he moved his family 
back to his home town, complaining that there 
was too much sin and carousing and dissipation 
in the county seat town to raise his children 
and that he wanted them to live under better 
influences ; where they could have better Sun- 
day-school advantages and greater church ad- 
vantages ; but personally he went on in his sins 
and said by his actions : " Now, you people 
protect my children and my home, and I will 
lie back and watch and see if you do it right." 
During our meeting there, he attended a Sun- 
day afternoon men's service ; and when the 
call was being made for sinners to accept 
Christ, a banker went up to him and said, 
" Look here ; you have lain back and depended 
on us to protect your wife and children long 
enough ; we need your help, and I ask you to 
step out on the side of Christ and show that 
you love your wife and children well enough 
to enter the fight on their side." That lawyer 
was a smart man, and was no coward when it 
came to that kind of a test. He saw the point 
at once and said, " I will do it." He went for- 
ward, got on the platform and said, " Men, I 
have been a coward long enough. I will not 
ask others to do for my family what I refuse 
to do myself. From this time henceforth you 



154 Revival Addresses 

will find me in the army of the Lord helping 
defend my own home." Well, bless God, that 
man became a faithful worker for the Master. 

Sin has a blinding effect on men. " Having 
eyes, they see not." It takes the power of the 
Holy Spirit to awaken them. Holy Spirit, 
come now and wake up blind men, and may 
they see themselves as they are, and may shame 
and sorrow fall upon them so mightily that 
they will rush away from Satan and join the 
heavenly forces. 

Making money is not home protection against 
Satan. You may be rich and live in a mansion 
and in that mansion you may find sin, corrup- 
tion, decay and misery only surpassed in hell. 
While in a little cabin over there may live a 
poor scissors grinder with a wife and three 
children, and in that cabin you will find char- 
acter, virtue, love and consecration, and the 
happiness of that home only surpassed in 
heaven. Now which of the two homes is the 
greater ? Which one of the two men owning 
those homes is the greater man ? One builds 
character and the other fortune. Who is the 
wise man ? " What shall it profit a man to 
gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? " 
The man who builds up a fortune, and then 
goes to hell is in a worse fix than the heathen. 
I have had experience in cities and in small 
towns and in the backwoods, but of all the ex- 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 155 

periences I ever had, I am most pleased with 
my frontier experience. On the frontier I had 
a chance to weigh men. There I found the 
truly brave, the bluffer, and the genuine cow- 
ard ; and I have always found the brave man 
easily appealed to. 

I want to refer to one character I met in the 
stormy days of the frontier w r ho made an 
eternal impression on me as one of the strong- 
est characters I ever met. His name was Bill 
Jackson. We dubbed him " the philosopher of 
the West." He was about forty-five years old, 
and a typical frontiersman. Bill had been in the 
West and on the frontier for more than twenty 
years. He was illiterate, but he had plenty of 
native ability. He was as brave a man as you 
would find in a year's travel. Bill would 
rather sleep among the wolves and among the 
blanket Indians than to occupy the best hotel 
in Chicago. Bill was always ready for trials 
and hardships. For a time he worked as posse- 
man under me when I was a United States 
Deputy Marshal, and in that capacity I found 
him to be true grit. I noticed Bill never swore, 
neither did he drink. I often wondered why, 
and finally I found out. One night a bunch of 
us were camped on the Arkansas Biver in the 
Osage country. About ten or eleven o'clock, I 
rolled up in my blanket to go to sleep, while 
Bill and some of my men sat around the camp- 



156 Revival Addresses 

fire exchanging wild west experiences. Finally 
the course of the conversation was abruptly 
changed when one of the boys asked Bill the 
following questions: "Bill, don't you ever 
swear? " " Boys, if ever I cussed a oath in my 
life I can't riccolect it." "Did you ever 
drink ? " " If ever I toch a drop in my life I 
don't know it; and, boys, I don't know one 
cuard from another." " Are you a Christian ? " 
" I don't know, boys, whether I am a Christian 
ur not, fur I don't know all it means to be er 
Christian ; but I think my ma wus ; you see I 
hain't never been to church mor'n a half dozen 
times in my life. I hain't never had no chance; 
but I know right from wrong and I aim to do 
right, and with the help of the Lord I will do 
what I think is right." " Well, Bill, how long 
have you been on the frontier ? " " For mor'n 
twenty years." " Well, how is it you never 
got to drinking or swearing in that length of 
time, associating continually with such rough 
men ? " " Well, boys, I will tell you about it. 
You see I was raised in the mountains of Ten- 
nessee, and my daddy was a moonshiner, and 
on Saturday evenin's he sold moonshine whis- 
key in a little log grocery to the rough people 
in them mountains. When I wus six or seven 
years old I was called a good dancer, and on 
Saturday evenin's pa would have me dance fur 
them men, while a old feller picked the banger, 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 157 

and then they would all laugh and treat. One 
Saturday evenin' pa put me on the counter to 
dance, and a big fuss come up, and some fellers 
begin to throw rocks from the outside in that 
grocery, and one rock hit me in the side and 
knocked me off the counter. Boys, it hurt 
mighty bad, but it didn't break no bones. You 
see when a boy gits hurt he always wants to 
see his ma. I went up the hill towards the 
house, a-cryin', ' Oh, ma ! ' but ma didn't an- 
swer. I went in the big room cryin', ' Oh, ma,' 
but she warn't thar. I went into the side 
room, but ma warn't thar. I went out yander 
to the kitchen still cryin', ' Oh, ma ! ' but she 
warn't thar. I went to the lot, and looked in 
the crib but ma warn't thar. I went to the 
stable still cryin' fur ma, but she didn't answer. 
I knowed thar warn't but one other place my 
ma could be ; plums wus ripe and I knowed ma 
must be down in the plum orchard ; so I went 
down through the back yard, through the back 
gate, down a trail through the plum orchard. 
I looked down yander, boys, under a big plum 
tree, and I seed my ma on her knees and her 
hands folded, her eyes shut, and her face turned 
towards the skies, and the tears a-streamin' 
down her cheeks. It shore toch me, and I 
went up to her and put my arms around her 
neck and said, ' Ma, what air you a-doin' ? ' and 
this here is what she said : ' Billy, I am a-prayin' 



i 5 8 



Revival Addresses 



fur you. I am a-prayin' that as long as you 
live you will never toch a drop of whiskey or 
cuss a oath ; ' and, boys, I kissed her lips and 
said, ' Ma, I will never do it,' and I have shore 
stuck to it." I raised up in my blanket and said, 
" Bill, you are the greatest man I ever saw." 
Let me tell you mothers something: if Bill's 
mother was looking down from heaven that 
night on her faithful and honourable boy, don't 
you know she could turn to Jesus and say, " I 
have fought a good fight " ? for Bill said his 
mother had been in heaven for several years. 

Young men, I beg you to enroll in the army 
of the Lord. Don't you get yourselves in the 
attitude of some of these men with families who 
know their duty but haven't the will-power to 
do it. Listen, if America were being assaulted 
by other nations, what would you do ? Would 
you hang back and call on your neighbours to 
protect you ? 

It was said by P. T. Barnum that the Amer- 
ican people love to be humbugged. It seems 
to me that it is true with many people, because 
you are letting Satan humbug you out of your 
manhood, out of your honour, out of your grat- 
itude, out of your duty, out of happiness, out of 
peace, humbugging you out of heaven, and he 
only offers hell in exchange. Holy Spirit, 
turn in the light and wake up the dead. It is 
a shame that you husbands and fathers must 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 159 

be told these things. Why, bless your hearts, 
a glance at the subject by any man of common 
sense is convincing enough and you ought to 
have lined up long ago, regardless of the ap- 
peals of the evangelists. We have numerous 
letters from pastors and from business men ask- 
ing us to hold meetings, and almost invariably 
the letters state, " We have quite a large num- 
ber of business men in our city we would like 
to see reached." Yes, sir ; think of it. Busi- 
ness men we would like to see reached. 
Reached how? Why, we would like to see 
them persuaded to come out on the side of 
Christ and help defend the town, help build it 
up spiritually, help defend the girls and boys, 
help defend their homes, help to enhance the 
value of property, and quit lying back in the 
brush, and depending entirely on us to defend 
them. Then why are we here? I tell you 
why we are here ; to try to get you to be hon- 
est ; to get you to be a worthy father ; to get 
you to be a worthy husband ; a worthy neigh- 
bour ; a worthy citizen ; a worthy man ; just to 
do your part. 

Among the last things David said to Solomon 
was, " I go the way of all the earth ; be thou 
strong therefore, and shew thyself a man." 
Well, you say you claim to be a man. What 
do I like ? Here is what David told Solomon 
to do to show himself a man. Listen : " Keep 



160 Revival Addresses 

the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in 
His ways, to keep His statutes, and His com- 
mandments, and His judgments, and His testi- 
monies, as it is written hi the law of Moses, 
that thou mayest prosper in all thou doest, and 
whithersoever thou turnest thyself." David 
was a man after God's own heart, and it was 
David's decision that to show yourself a man 
you had to obey the commandments of the 
Lord. David also thought prosperity depended 
on obedience to God. And let me tell you sin- 
ners this, and you listen to it. If somebody in 
this city were not keeping the Lord's com- 
mandments and maintaining the churches and 
the Sunday-schools, I am here to tell you pros- 
perity would end. You take all the Christians 
out of this place, and tear down the churches ; 
the property you now own wouldn't be worth 
ten cents on the dollar, and yet there you sit 
waiting for feeling. My text doesn't prescribe 
feeling ; it reads, " I have fought a good fight." 
I tell you, man, you are a leach ; you are living 
off the efforts and faith of others ; you are a 
blood sucker, a parasite ; you are dead beating 
your way, and I beg you, in the name of 
Christ, to quit it. 

The Lord simply calls for duty. Listen: 
" But if the wicked will turn from all his sins 
that he hath committed, and keep all My 
statutes, and do that which is lawful and right, 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 161 

he shall surely live, he shall not die." Now 
you cannot find much feeling in that, can you ? 
But you can see duty. I can tell you when a 
man gets feeling ; when he does the thing that 
is lawful and right; then comes your rest. 
You men cannot find any rest in sin because 
you are not doing right. 

When Mr. Hobbs and I were in an Oklahoma 
town carrying on a meeting, one night I 
preached on this text I am handling to-night ; 
there was in that audience a leading merchant 
sitting by the side of his wife. He was called 
a very wicked man, but just as soon as I closed 
and made the call, that merchant came on a 
run, and grasping my hand said, " Brother 
Burke, do you suppose I am mean enough to 
sit there by the side of a good Christian wife 
and not show her I am a man ? Why, sir, I 
could never look her in the face again, and I 
would be ashamed to confess to my children 
that I was their father after hearing this ser- 
mon, were I not to take a stand for Christ. I 
never saw it in that light before ; if I had, I 
would have been a Christian twenty years ago." 
The last time I heard from him he was one 
of the main pillars in the church. It is so 
plain that every sinner can see it. Every girl 
and boy and mother and father who have a 
deep sense of honour about them ought to quit 
the devil to-night. I cannot see how on earth 



162 Revival Addresses 

any mother could procrastinate for a single mo- 
ment ; and I tell you, mother, if you are not a 
Christian, you are not a worthy mother, and if 
you love your children you are not going to 
hang back and expect somebody else to instruct 
them in righteousness. Are you sinners 
awake ? Then if you are, arise and come to 
Jesus. 

I heard a story once that ran about as fol- 
lows : A little girl was out in the yard in the 
fall of the year sweeping the leaves together 
with an old-fashioned brush broom, and when 
she got a pile together she would set them on 
fire. Through her carelessness, her dress 
caught fire, and when she discovered it, she be- 
gan to run around the house screaming. Her 
father saw her, and having no time to get a 
blanket, or water, he ran and caught her, and 
with his own hands he smothered out the fire. 
She never got a burn, but it burned the father's 
hands to a crisp, and never again was he able to 
open them, and had to go through life with his 
hands closed, his fingers useless. The girl grew 
up and married and moved away. One day a 
message came to her telling her her father was 
very low. She got on the first train and went 
back to her home town, and was told at the 
depot that her father couldn't last long. She 
got into the carriage and hastened to her father's 
house. When she got out of the carriage she 



"I Have Fought a Good Fight" 163 

was met at the gate by a messenger who said 
her father had just passed away and the wind- 
ing sheet had been spread over him. She never 
spoke a word. She didn't look to the right or 
left, but went straight to her father's room and 
walked up to his body and threw back that 
sheet. Did she kiss his brow ? No. Did she 
kiss his cheek ? No. She reached down and 
lifted those crippled hands to her lips and 
showered kisses there, and while tears fell upon 
them like rain, she cried out, "My father's 
hands, these poor blessed hands, these sweet 
hands ; they suffered so much for me." Wasn't 
that sweet ? Bless her heart, she had gratitude 
and was not ashamed to show it before all. 
But you hear me ; I look back yonder nineteen 
hundred years ago, and I see my Saviour's 
bleeding hands. I see His bleeding feet. I see 
His lacerated back and side ; I see His bleeding 
brow. I fall on my knees in His presence and 
cry, Oh, my blessed Jesus, you suffered it for 
me, and I feel grateful to you for it. Jesus, I 
will register on your side. I enlist now. I will 
not serve Satan my enemy. I come, I come. 
I am saved ! I am saved ! because He says, 
" Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast 
out." 



VII 

" What Must I Do to be Saved " 

1 ' Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? And they said, Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy 
house.' ' — Acts xvi. 30-31. 

It is the Philippian jailer who asks this 
question. He had been astounded at the power 
with God of Paul and Silas, and seeing that 
power, knew they were saved ; and being con- 
vinced of that fact, was seized by conviction, 
wanted salvation himself, and became so much 
in earnest about the matter, he fell down before 
Paul and Silas ; and mind you, that jailer was 
trembling when he did it, and said, " Sirs, 
what must I do to be saved ? " Let's put stress 
on that pronoun " I," because it now becomes a 
personal matter with the jailer, and I pray God 
it will become a personal matter this evening 
with every sinner in this audience. 

Never was there asked a more important 
question than this, " What must I do ? " 

I can always tell when a man or woman is in 
earnest about their salvation. They want to 
know at once what God wants them to do, 
and, thank God, an earnest seeker will always 
comply readily with the demands. 

164 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 165 

Now this evening I am going to try to reason 
with you. You will find no excitement or 
emotion in this sermon, but plain common sense. 
I will endeavour to appeal to your good com- 
mon sense. I will admit here, however, that 
this sermon only appeals to that class who 
think. There is a class an evangelist can reason 
with. It is said that only about one man in 
fifty can be appealed to by reason. One in 
fifty is a thinker ; the balance are followers ; 
and if that is true it is the one in fifty that I 
am after now. There is another class you have 
to persuade to come to Christ. Another class is 
reached entirely through emotion. "While an- 
other class you have got to pound in ; they 
must be beaten and whipped into line. 

You often hear it said, " You can lead men 
but you cannot drive them." That is not so, 
for the majority of men to-day are driven. 
Moneyed corporations are driving men to the 
polls on election day as effectually as the ranch- 
man drives his cattle to slaughter. 

Jesus understood mankind when He said, 
" Go out into the highways and hedges, and 
compel them to come in." But notice that this 
is shown as the last resort of the Master, and I 
assure you that pounding will be my last re- 
sort ; but if you don't come through reason and 
persuasion and patient entreaty, you may look 
out for the sledge-hammer, for I have one, and 



166 Revival Addresses 

if it becomes necessary I can wield it unmerci- 
fully. I don't like to do it, but I can do it. 

" What must I do to be saved ? " Holy 
Spirit, take this message home. Burn the 
words into the hearts of my hearers. God help 
you to listen. 

No sooner does a man begin to talk on this sub- 
ject than old Sister Pheby, and Aunt Polly Plug, 
and Grandma Grunt, and old man Wise, and 
Uncle Mose Smart, and Mr. Knowall sit down 
and put on a sanctimonious squint and say, " I 
will see now if he knows anything about how 
to be saved, because I am saved, and if he tells 
them to come just like I did then I will know 
he is right. But if he don't, I am not going to 
endorse his method." When you preach the 
word of God, and leave out emotion and super- 
stition from the mode of acceptance, a hue and 
cry go up, " Too easy, too easy." I tell you I 
didn't " git " it that way. 

I am surprised at the ignorance of some peo- 
ple on the plan. There sits a man and behind 
him sits a woman who have their idea about 
salvation, and they know they are right because 
they have the experience. 

" What must I do ? " was the question ; the 
answer is, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
and thou shalt be saved, and thy house." The 
answer is simple. We can all understand that, 
can we not ? 






"What Must I Do to be Saved" 167 

I find two great errors being taught in get- 
ting souls to Christ ; one is trying to get up a 
big hurrah, and between excitement and fear, 
sweep the penitents through. Another ex- 
treme is getting people to believe mentally and 
entirely bar out the power of the Holy Spirit. 
Either one is dangerous. I love to see people 
take God at His word and accept with a whole 
heart. 

The simplicity of the plan is where men 
stagger. It has been preached so long behind 
a dark screen that many people have become 
confused. The way is plain enough for the lit- 
tle children. " Suffer little children and forbid 
them not to come unto Me." " The wayfaring 
men though fools, shall not err therein." Then 
if it is plain why mystify it ? 

I don't want you to get the idea that I advo- 
cate shallow work ; bless your hearts, I believe 
in plowing deep. You will find before this 
campaign is over that I am a stickler for the 
" old-time religion," but I do insist that in order 
to get a good case we must be willing to take 
God at His word. 

I have seen people accept Christ, and then 
have heard the comments of some, saying they 
didn't believe they had the right experience. 
" Why," one will say, " I tell you I didn't get 
it that way — when I got it. I went to the altar 
for ten days and nights before I got it." 



168 Revival Addresses 

But hold on, brother ; that may be true ; but 
you could have settled the question just as 
easily the first minute as you did the last. 
That last thing was to get your consent to take 
God at His word, and you could have done that 
the first moment you started forward. Your 
staying at the altar for several days plays no 
part of your salvation. That part of the pro- 
ceedings was only to satisfy the superstition 
that remains in you. Where do you get your 
authority for coming that way ? Do you get 
it out of the Bible ? If the Bible teaches it, I 
have never been able to find it. Now, we have 
that class to contend with ; they have inherited 
the idea that to come to Christ it takes time 
and much praying and agonizing. 

Then we have another class who say they 
don't believe in the " mourners' bench." I 
don't know what gave it the name of " mourn- 
ers' bench." It is an altar, or place of inquiry ; 
but as far as I am concerned I cannot see any 
harm in the name mourners' bench — " Blessed 
are they that mourn for they shall be com- 
forted " — but I don't believe in making it a 
place of agony. I think that the conditions 
should be made plain to the seeker, and when 
those conditions have been complied with, let 
him go in peace. 

I have seen thousands of conversions, and 
have seen penitents come every way. I have 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 169 

seen those who walked up from the audience 
and gave their hand in token of their accept- 
ance, who showed just as deep a work of grace 
as those who had to linger for hours at the 
altar. Listen ; suppose I make a call for peni- 
tents and forty go to the inquiry room and 
forty come to the altar and forty stand up in 
the audience for prayers. At the conclusion 
ten step up here from the altar and say they 
are saved. Ten come from the inquiry room, 
and ten come from the audience and say the 
same. ISTow, can you say those who came from 
the audience are not just as fully saved as 
those who came to the altar, or as those who 
came from the inquiry room? If they com- 
plied with the conditions there is no difference. 
If they got their own consent to take God at 
His word and to quit their sins the whole 
matter is settled. 

Another comment I often hear is that the 
religion of Christ ought to affect every soul 
alike. "Well, that is not reasonable because we 
all have our temperaments. I see two men 
sitting side by side ; one is very emotional and 
the other is not. ISTow, is it any proof that the 
emotional man is any more thoroughly saved 
than the other ? The non-emotional man may 
be just as devoted to his Master as the other ; 
you cannot judge men that way. 

When I was in Baylor University as a 



170 Revival Addresses 

student I took lessons in anatomy, and leading 
physicians would often lecture to us on that 
subject. On one occasion a noted doctor was 
delivering a lecture on the brain ; finally he 
asked, " Young men, how many brain fibres 
have you ? " Not a student in the class could 
answer. He then asked Professor Harris to 
make a guess. The professor said, "About 
three hundred." He then turned to me and 
said, "Burke, you guess." I thought the 
professor had guessed too many and I said, 
"About two hundred and fifty." He said, 
" You are good guessers ; we have twenty-eight 
millions ; and the highest number ever culti- 
vated in any man's brain was eight millions, 
leaving twenty millions dormant ; and in no 
instance has the same number and of the same 
kind been cultivated in any two men's brain ; 
if there were they would act alike and look 
alike." 

Among the millions of faces we find on 
earth, you will find no two just alike. They 
may measure the same from chin to top of 
forehead, and from cheek to cheek, and may 
have the same complexion and the same size 
nose and mouth, but after all they don't favour 
one another. The difference comes from ex- 
pression, and expression comes from degrees 
of cultivation of brain and the kind of brain 
cells brought into action. We also find men 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 171 

as varied in temperament ; it was there I got 
a cue to the dispositions of people. 

I find what appeals to A fails to appeal to 
B. I preach a sermon that reaches C, and D 
don't like it at all. D is not to be censured ; 
perhaps he cannot help it ; his mind craves 
something else ; but when I do preach a sermon 
to please D, C fails to enjoy it. I never worry 
about people finding fault, because if they are 
honest and keep coming I know I will finally 
ring their number. That is the reason I 
preach from so many angles ; I want to get 
round to you, and to you. 

Nature has also given us dispositions that 
we cannot well overcome. We see that crop- 
ping out even in families. One writer gives 
an account of a father who had three little 
girls. This father was once called away from 
home for about three months. When he was 
returning one little girl ran away down the 
road crying, " Papa, papa," and threw her 
little arms about his neck, while the second 
little girl sat down on the door-step and wept. 
The third little girl got behind the door and 
hid. All loved him alike, but were tempered 
differently. We find men and women are all 
grown up children with different tempera- 
ments ; we must not expect all to act alike. 

Once upon a time Peter said to some of the 
disciples, " I go a-fishing. They say unto him, 



1 7 2 



Revival Addresses 



We also go with thee. They went forth, and 
entered into a ship immediately ; and that 
night they caught nothing. But when the 
morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore : 
but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 
Then saith Jesus unto them, Children, have ye 
any meat? They answered Him, ISTo. And 
He said unto them, Cast the net on the right 
side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast 
therefore, and now they were not able to draw 
it for the multitude of fishes. Therefore that 
disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, 
It is the Lord." Now what did Peter do when 
he heard it was the Lord ? Why, he donned 
his fisher's coat, and cast himself into the sea, 
and of course swam ashore to see Jesus. 

Now you are not surprised at Peter doing 
that ; neither am I ; in fact I would have been 
surprised if Peter had not done it. What made 
Peter do that ? Was it because he loved Jesus 
more than the other disciples ? ]STo, that is not 
it. John loved Jesus as much as Peter ; but it 
is only a matter of temperament. Peter was an 
impetuous character and couldn't help it any 
more than / can help being impetuous. 

Now suppose all the disciples had been like 
Peter. What would have been the result? 
Why, they would have lost the fish and boat 
too. Somebody had to hang on to the ship 
and save the fish. We have a class of disciples 



A 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 173 

to-day who do nothing but hang on to the net. 
So let us understand then that we are not all 
built alike. 

JSow did Jesus do all things alike ? I do 
wish we would read the Word, and get the 
true sense of it ; if we do I am sure we will 
not have so many one-ideaed people. It seems 
to me there are many people whose heads are 
not full enough of gray matter to contain but 
one idea, and when you strike a little one-ideaed 
soul just pass him up because, "The Lord 
knoweth his frame," He knows he is dust, and 
he is really to be pitied. I tell you now a good 
case of old-time religion broadens us and fills 
our souls with charity, and then we can read 
this old book understandingly. 

Once upon a time there was a poor blind 
man who begged by the wayside near the gates 
of Jericho. I don't know how this blind man 
got about, whether he was led by a dog or a 
child ; but I do imagine he had worn a stump 
or a log sleek sitting on it. His name was 
Bartimeus. One day I see a man sit down by 
his side and after introducing himself say, 
" Bartimeus, there is a man somewhere in this 
country who can heal you." Bartimeus said, 
" Oh, no, you are mistaken, for I was born 
blind." " Well, that makes no difference ; this 
great physician can heal those who were born 
blind. I know Him ; I know He can do it." 



*74 



Revival Addresses 



" Well, you must remember I am a poor blind 
beggar. I have no money to pay a great 
physician like that." "Yes, but that great 
healer doesn't charge a cent for His cure." 
" Well, then, what is His name ? " " His name 
is Jesus, the Son of David. Now, Bartimeus, 
if ever Jesus comes this way you must call on 
Him to heal you." I can see Bartimeus sitting 
there day after day dreaming over the thought 
of meeting this physician. I can see him grow- 
ing more anxious each day. 

Listen: "And it came to pass, that as He 
came nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man 
sat by the wayside begging ; and hearing the 
multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. 
And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth 
passeth by. And he cried, saying, Jesus, Thou 
Son of David, have mercy on me. And they 
which went before rebuked him, that he should 
hold his peace." Now look here, Mr. Beggar, 
you keep still, for Jesus is going to Jerusalem 
to be crowned King and He doesn't want to be 
disturbed by any blind beggars. Now that 
sounds like Peter, doesn't it ? But did that 
stop Bartimeus? No, it didn't stop him. I 
tell you Bartimeus was in earnest. Listen to 
the Word, " But he cried so much the more, 
Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." 

Say, you listen ; people never did know Jesus 
while He was here ; that prayer of Bartimeus 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 175 

arrested His precious footsteps ; and I tell you 
Jesus would stop the heavenly choir to-night to 
hear a prayer like that. "And Jesus stood, 
and commanded him to be brought unto Him, 
and when he was come near, He asked him, 
saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto 
thee ? And he said, Lord, that I may receive 
my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Eeceive 
thy sight; thy faith hath saved thee. And 
immediately he received his sight and followed 
Him, glorifying God ; and all the people when 
they saw it gave praise unto God." 

Why did the people rejoice ? Because 
Bartimeus had not only received his sight, he 
was also saved. Yet you will find a class of 
church hypocrites who say they don't believe 
in rejoicing because it shows excitement. It 
seems to me the most natural thing on earth 
for any man or woman to do is to rejoice over 
a saved soul. 

Well, after Bartimeus rejoiced for a time, I 
can see him strike for home. He wants to see 
his folks ; he has never seen them and he wants 
to know how they look. As he hastens down 
the street, he meets a man, who says, " Hello ! is 
that you, Bartimeus ? " " Yes." " You act like 
you can see?" "I can." "Well, well, how 
did you get your eyes ? " " Jesus, the Son of 
David, healed me." "I have heard of that 
great healer; where is He?" "Do you see 



176 Revival Addresses 

that throng of people down yonder ? " " Yes." 
" Well, you will find Him there." 

Now the name of this man was Zaccheus, 
and he was chief among the publicans, and was 
rich. I can see Zaccheus rush off down there to 
see Jesus, but he was low in stature. He tiptoes 
here and he tiptoes there, but no, he couldn't 
get a glimpse of Him. He says, " I will see 
Him," and thank God whenever a man makes 
up his mind to see Jesus he can certainly do it. 
So Zaccheus ran ahead and climbed up a syca- 
more tree. Now look at that rich man climb- 
ing up a tree like a squirrel. Doesn't it seem 
to you that he would be embarrassed? No, 
says some one, he is not embarrassed because 
he wants to see Jesus, and when a man wants 
to see Jesus, he gets really in earnest and he 
doesn't care then who looks at him. 

Look at Zaccheus, climbing out on that limb 
over the main road and lying now among the 
leaves. He doesn't expect to be noticed by the 
passing throng, but all he wants now is to see 
Jesus. The throng comes nearer and nearer and 
he begins to scan every face. I see him look at 
Judas ; that won't do. He looks at Peter ; that 
won't do. He looks at John ; that looks better. 
But look yonder — there walks Jesus. Zaccheus 
says, " That must be Him ; His walk and ap- 
pearance surpass the others." Look; he sees 
compassion dripping from His finger-tips and 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 177 

love bursting from every expression — " I know 
that is Him." 

Now listen : " And when Jesus came to the 
place, He looked up, and saw him, and said 
unto him, Zaccheus, make haste, and come 
down ; for to-day I must abide at thy house." 

I can see Zaccheus jump on that limb and 
say, " He calls my name and I was never intro- 
duced to Him ; but He calls me, He knows 
me." And listen: "And he made haste and 
came down, and received Him joyfully." 

JSTow I want to ask you a question in the- 
ology. Where was Zaccheus converted? I 
tell you where he was converted, the moment 
he started from that limb to the ground. How 
do you know ? Because he received Him joy- 
fully. Listen : " Zaccheus made haste." Why 
did Jesus say, " Make haste " ? Because He 
knew if that rich man lay there half a minute 
to consider it the devil would argue him out of 
it. Millions of souls have been lost by not 
making haste. You know you ought to do it, 
but you didn't get in a hurry and Satan got in 
his influence. Oh, me, old Satan is always on 
hand to tell you not to be in a hurry. Well, 
bless God, our Master is a present tense Saviour ; 
He says, " Make haste." Thank God, Zaccheus 
got in a hurry and was wonderfully saved. Let 
us see if he wasn't. " And Zaccheus stood and 
said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of 



178 Revival Addresses 

my goods I give to the poor; and if I have 
taken anything from any man by false accusa- 
tion, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said 
unto him, This day is salvation come to this 
house." 

I tell you that was a wonderful conversion. 
Not much emotion or excitement about it, was 
there ? We haven't an account of a riper con- 
version in all the ministry of Jesus. All the 
excitement there was, Zaccheus got in a hurry. 
He had such a case of the old-time religion that 
he was willing to make full restitution. I like 
the conversion of Zaccheus because it means he 
gave to Jesus his whole heart. 

Now let us take up Bartimeus again. I can 
see him a few days after that sitting out yonder 
looking over those rocky hills. Now the coun- 
try is not very picturesque, but it looks good to 
Bartimeus. I can hear him say, " Well, I didn't 
know what I was missing when I was blind." 
While sitting there another man comes and sits 
down by his side, and after introducing himself, 
says, " I used to be blind, and I am now stroll- 
ing around looking at the country." Bartimeus 
says, " Can you see as well as anybody ? " 
"Yes." "WTiere did you get your eyes?" 
" Jesus the Son of David healed me." Now 
Bartimeus is going to see whether or not he is 
telling the truth. " You say Jesus the Son of 
David healed you?" "Yes." "Well, "how 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 179 

did He do it ? " " Well, sir, it is not a long 
story ; Jesus found me groping in darkness and 
asked me if I would be made whole ? I told 
Him yes, and Jesus stretched out His hand and 
with His tender and healing touch He ran His 
hands over my eyes and I received my sight." 
" Jesus didn't do it." " I tell you He did." 
" But I say He did not." " Why do you say 
He didn't?" " Because He healed me, and 
when He did He said, i Thy faith hath saved 
thee.' " 

Those two men turn their backs on each other 
now because each thinks the other is an impostor. 
Finally the third man comes along, and sits 
down and says, " Gentlemen, I am looking at the 
country ; I was once blind but now I see, and I 
enjoy the sights." Both speak up at once : 
" "Who healed you ? " " Jesus the Son of David." 
" How did He do it?" " Well, He spat on the 
ground, and made up some mud of the spittle, 
and daubed it in my eyes, and said unto me, ' Go 
wash in the pool Siloam.' I went and washed 
and I could see as well as any man." " Jesus 
didn't do it." "I tell you He did. What 
makes you say He did not ? " " Because Jesus 
doesn't save that way." Bartimeus jumps up 
and cries, "It is all faith." The next says, 
"Not so; it is all works." The third said, 
"You are both wrong; it is all water." Now 
there you are, three ways of doing a thing to 



180 Revival Addresses 

reach the same end. When a man comes to me 
and says it took water to heal him, I say all 
right. I find one in three of the blind men had 
to go the water route. As far as I am con- 
cerned I am not worried about the way you 
find Christ, or the way He healed you ; all I 
want to know is are you saved ? And if you 
are not, you had better begin to fix it up at 
once. ' ' Make haste. " 

" You say you are not afflicted with the diffi- 
culty of how to come to Christ, but you cannot 
accept the God of the Bible. What is your ob- 
jection to the God of the Bible ? " So many 
things I cannot understand, and I have decided 
to discard it all." Well, sir, I want to ask you 
if you believe in a God at all. " Oh, yes." 
Well, what kind of a God ? " A God of nature." 
Can you understand natural things? "Why 
certainly; because they are here before us." 
Well, I want to ask you a line of questions and 
see how much you know about nature. Can 
you tell why a goose egg is white and a turkey 
egg speckled ? Can you tell why the same 
grass will make two cows fat and grow black 
hair on one, and white hair on the other ? Can 
you tell why that same grass will grow horns 
on one cow, and the other a mooley ? Can 
you explain why the same grass will grow 
wool on a sheep, and feathers on a goose ? 
Can you even explain why a grain of corn must 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 181 

rot before it germinates ? " No, I couldn't an- 
swer those questions because I have never studied 
them." 

About what I thought. But you know these 
results come ? " Yes." You know the grass 
makes the ox fat, and the fatted ox is good to 
eat ? " Yes." You eat the beef and feed your 
physical wants, don't you? "Yes." You 
know the cow gives milk and you drink the 
milk and eat the butter and feed your natural 
wants and ask no questions? "Yes." You 
know the wool on the sheep is turned into com- 
fortable clothing, and you w r ear the clothing ? 
"Yes." The feathers from the goose makes 
soft pillows and you rest your head on a feather 
pillow, don't you ? " Yes." I see you are will- 
ing to feed the natural man on the things it de- 
mands, and yet you cannot explain the simplest 
thing about how it comes. You cannot tell the 
first thing about the power and results of the 
simplest things around us. 

" No, I cannot do that and, more than that, I 
don't consider it any of my business." Well, 
Amen. Now listen. " For God so loved the 
world, that He gave His only begotten Son, 
that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
perish but have everlasting life." Isn't that 
simple ? " Yes." " Believe on the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house." 
Isn't that simple ? " Yes." 



182 Revival Addresses 

"Verily, verily I say unto you, he that 
heareth My word, and belie veth on Him that 
sent Me, hath everlasting life, and shall not 
come into condemnation; but is passed from 
death unto life." Isn't that plain? "Yes." 
"But as many as received Him, to them gave 
He power to become the sons of God, even to 
them that believe on His name." Isn't that 
simple ? " Yes." " That if thou wilt confess 
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt be- 
lieve in thine heart that God hath raised Him 
from the dead, thou shalt be saved." " Where- 
fore come out from among them, and be ye 
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the un- 
clean thing ; and I will receive you, and will be 
a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and 
daughters, saith the Lord Almighty." "Come 
unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, 
and I will give you rest." Now isn't that all 
simple ? " Yes, but I cannot see why it is 
necessary." "Well, God says that is none of 
your business. " God's ways are not man's 
ways." I notice you are willing to feed your 
flesh, but never take a single step to feed the 
spiritual, and here you are starving your poor 
soul to death. 

When I stop to look around me, I behold the 
harmonies in nature. I see the seasons come 
and go. I see the flowers bloom to gladden the 
eye. The birds sing and make music for the 



"What Must I Do to be Saved " 183 

weary traveller. The clouds arise, the rain 
falls, the crops grow, the fruits ripen and we 
gather and apply to our physical needs. We go 
out yonder and harvest the wheat, we crib the 
corn, we kill and pack away our meats for these 
bodies. We exercise our faculties, we use our 
hands, our feet, our brain, our tongues, our vital- 
ity, to bring things together for our decaying 
bodies. I thank God He has made such ample 
provisions, but as a progressive man I am not sat- 
isfied with that. I want something better. I 
find a voice within me cries for relief and help. 
That voice says, " Oh, Thou, the great God of 
nature, I want to thank Thee that Thou hast 
made such great provisions for the flesh ; but, 
Thou God of nature, I find I have a something 
else within me that longs for rest and a perma- 
nent abiding place. When I find, Lord of na- 
ture, that I can stay here but a very short time 
at best, when I find I have twenty-eight million 
brain fibres, and eight million at best cultivated, 
when I think of my thirst for knowledge and 
so short a time to get it, oh, God of nature 
my soul cries out for help. Can you furnish 
that help ? Oh, Lord of nature, this cannot be 
the voice of deception ; can you help me ? " 
" Yes, I have a remedy. ' Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy 
house.' " 
The Mississippi River flows out of Lake 



184 Revival Addresses 

Itaska, between rather narrow confines, but it 
flows on and I see branches, rivulets and creeks 
flowing in, and I finally see the Ohio Kiver and 
the Missouri River flowing in, and then it is 
called the Father of Waters. It becomes a 
mighty force and finally enters into the ocean. 
Well, we will call this promise, " Believe on the 
Lord Jesus Christ," Itaska, and I start on that 
promise, and I go to reading this word, and I 
find another promise and a rivulet enters into 
my stream of faith. I keep moving, not stand- 
ing still. I like the idea of walking on the 
promises. Finally a creek rolls in ; I begin to 
feel stronger. I stay right with the Word. 
" Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but 
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which 
liveth and abideth forever." On I go, sticking 
to this old book, and larger and larger streams 
enter into my spiritual life. Promises like 
great rivers of waters flow in, and at last I be- 
come mighty in faith. I mount the eternal 
rock, safe with Jesus, and all the scoffs and 
jeers and rebuffs of the Satanic forces cannot 
shake me for I am safe with Jesus, until I 
finally enter into the Ocean of Eternity. 

The jailer was instructed to believe, and that 
meant to believe strong enough to take hold 
with all his heart. Oh, the weakness of men 
in dealing with God, a positive force. To get 
close to Jesus you must be positive, you must 



'What Must I Do to be Saved" 185 

mean it. That is what God requires ; yes or 
no, and no halting. 

" Well, now, hold on, Burke ; you have left 
something out. I want to know what convic- 
tion is." Well, conviction is being absolutely 
convinced, and that conviction is brought about 
by the power of the Holy Spirit. God calls 
you through His Spirit. You say that Spirit 
has never called you ? Well, I feel sorry for 
you, for I tell you a man must be on the level 
of a beast if that Spirit fails to call. 

Jesus says, " Cast not your pearls before 
swine." And I confess the Holy Spirit is not 
going to call a hog, but if you have the instincts 
of a gentleman or a lady, and have good blood 
in your veins, you are going to hear that call. 
I don't care how poor and ragged you are, that 
is no indication that you haven't the elements 
of a gentleman in you, and if you have, the 
Spirit is going to call you. 

Now listen ; you know how to be convinced 
politically, don't you ? I will say for illustra- 
tion that I am a free silver Democrat and Dr. 
Henry there is a sound money Republican. 
Dr. Henry gets up and makes a sound money 
speech. I go to him and say, " Doctor, I am 
convinced that I am wrong and you are right." 
" Burke, I am glad you are convicted ; now I 
tell you what you do ; you quit the Democratic 
party and come over and join the Republican 



186 Revival Addresses 

party, and we will take care of you." But 
when the election comes I still vote the Demo- 
cratic ticket. Henry says, " I thought you 
were convinced that we are right ? " " Well, 
I am, but I cannot quit the old gang." ¥ Well, 
sir, we cannot do a thing for you. I don't care 
how strong you believe in our principles, unless 
you vote with us, we cannot recognize you." 
And so it is in serving Jesus. I don't care how 
much you think it is right to serve Jesus — that 
will do you no good. You will have to quit 
the devil's party, and get over and vote the 
Christ ticket. The only difference is one is a 
political proposition and the other a spiritual. 
The plan of salvation is simply a spiritual con- 
tract God has offered to man. The Holy Spirit 
convicts you of sin, and God through Christ 
offers the remedy. Holy Spirit, convince men 
to-night. 

I don't care how moral you are ; that hasn't 
a single thing to do with your salvation. You 
may have a thousand virtues, and no faults, 
morally speaking, yet you are just as thoroughly 
lost as that gambler and drunkard and swearer, 
because you reject Christ and He says, " I am 
the way, the truth and the life ; no man cometh 
unto the Father, but by Me." 

Now, let's see. I am walking in this direction. 
I will say I am a sinner because I vote the 
Satan ticket. Now faith cometh through re- 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 187 

pentance, but we must be convinced by the 
power of the Spirit that this old book is right, 
and according to the book, I am lost. We must 
believe in the God of the Bible, and convinced 
that "The wages of sin is death," and the 
damning sin is rejecting Christ, and the only 
remedy for that sin is repentance. Now says 
some man, you have struck the key-note ; I am 
convicted. Now tell me what repentance is. 
Well, you listen ; if I don't make it so plain a 
ten-year-old child can understand it, I declare 
to you I will quit the pulpit. How few really 
understand repentance ! We must all repent. 
I tell you now, there is no salvation for you 
without true repentance and absolute forgive- 
ness. Listen : " If we confess our sins, He is 
faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to 
cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Now this 
is God's promise. Listen again. " These 
things have I written unto you that believe on 
the name of the Son of God ; that ye may know 
that ye have eternal life, and that ye may be- 
lieve on the Son of God." What God wants is 
for us to take Him at His word. 

I will see if I can make this plain to you. I 
will say I offend my friend Dr. Henry ; my sin 
against him is deep, but he writes to me, and 
says in his letter, "Burke, you have sinned 
against me ; but if you will come to me and 
apologize, I am willing to forgive you and will 



l88 Revival Addresses 

forgive you now." I know Dr. Henry is a man 
of his word. I know he is honourable, and I go 
to him and say, " Doctor, I got your letter, and 
I have come to ask you to forgive me." " Well, 
then, Burke, that makes it all right." " Well, 
but I want to know if you have forgiven me ? " 
" Why, you said you got my letter. Didn't I 
say I would forgive you if you came ? " " Yes, 
doctor, but that is too easy. I want you to for- 
give me." "Burke, take my word for it." 
"No, no, I want to keep on repenting and 
begging you to forgive me." Let me tell you 
something, people ; Dr. Henry would lose 
patience with me and turn me out. I know 
God must lose patience with some people be- 
cause they will not take Him at His word. 

Now I am going to show you how some 
folks try to find the Lord. Listen: "Oh, 
Lord, I come repenting. I come confessing my 
sins, and, Lord, I ask you now to take me and 
bless me." The Lord says, "Well, you have 
My word. i If we confess our sins, He is faith- 
ful and just to forgive us our sins. 5 " " Yes, 
Lord, I know ; but I don't care anything about 
that. I don't want that ; I want you to for- 
give me." " ' Wherefore come out from among 
them, and be ye separate saith the Lord, and 
touch not the unclean thing and I will receive 
you.' Now will you do it?" "No, Lord, I 
want you to forgive me. I come begging you 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 189 

to have mercy." " Him that cometh to Me I 
will in no wise cast out." " Lord, I don't care 
for that. I beg you to forgive me and give me 
an abundance of feeling." Listen ; I see the 
Holy Spirit quit that man, and the last con- 
dition of that man is worse than the first. 
Begging God to forgive you is not repentance. 
You can come to this altar and beg God for 
twenty years, if such a thing were possible, and 
you might weep every hour in the day, and 
then be lost. Oh, me, let us get at it, and find 
out about true repentance. 

You say you will try to repent and serve 
God ? Trying is not repentance and you can 
try all your life and be lost. You say you 
have a good desire ? That is not repentance. 
You say your intentions are good ? That is 
not repentance. You say you are resolved 
to do better ? That is not repentance. The 
way to hell is paved with good resolutions. 
You say you have remorse of conscience? 
That is not repentance. Sometimes remorse 
of conscience brings despair and suicide but 
it is not repentance. " Godly sorrow worketh 
repentance," but there is a big difference in 
godly sorrow and remorse. You say you 
are sorry for your sins ? That is not re- 
pentance. Well, you say, what is repentance 
then ? Now listen and I will show you. Now 
I am going to repent, and be saved according 



190 Revival Addresses 

to the terms of the Gospel. Listen ; Almighty 
God, I confess my sins before Thee, and promise 
Thee, oh, God, for the sake of Jesus, to quit 
them right now and follow Jesus. Listen, God 
help you to listen. Repentance is quitting 
your sins for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
No repentance without sacrifice and we must 
sacrifice our sins, and when we do that God is 
pleased. Not try, but " whosoever will." Our 
will-power must be brought into conjunction 
with God's grace, and we quit. The work is 
accomplished for we have God's word. Now 
I have repented for I promise God to quit; 
yes, get that little word " quit " down in your 
heart and let it stay there. Now I turn round. 
What does convert mean ? It means turn, and 
I turn and start the other way, and I am going 
to heaven. Some ignorant man or woman says, 
"Hold on, Burke, you are not saved." Yes, 
but I am. I have complied with God's condi- 
tions and I have His word that I am saved. 
"Well, but hold on; what about your feel- 
ings?" Well, excuse me; I hadn't thought 
about that, because the word " feeling " is not 
mentioned in the plan of salvation from Genesis 
to Revelation. But since you mentioned that 
point I find I am all right, because the word 
says, " We know we have passed from death 
unto life because we love the brethren " ; and I 
know I love them right now, and that shows 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 191 

me " His Spirit is bearing witness with my 
spirit " — and I find " I abhor that which is 
evil, and cling to that which is good." " Why, 
Burke, don't you believe in feeling?" Yes, 
indeed ; I am the greatest feeler you ever saw. 
I defy you to find any man who believes in 
feeling any more than I do. But, bless your 
heart, my feelings are the result of my faith. 

We take God at His word, stand on the 
promises, or rather walk on them, and in spite 
of all you can do, our cup will occasionally run 
over. The man who seeks feeling fails to find 
Christ. The man who seeks to find Christ is 
sure to find feeling. I don't know when that 
feeling of rest and assurance will come ; that is 
none of my business. It may come right now 
and it may come in an hour or it may come to- 
morrow, or next week; that is none of my 
business. I am to take God at His word and He 
will settle with me as I need it. 

Almighty God, turn in the power, turn in 
the light, and help men to say, " Sink or swim, 
survive or perish," I will take God at His word, 
and if I am lost, God will be to blame for it, 
for I am relying on His word. This old book 
is our guide, and let's not hesitate to believe it. 

Well, then, what is faith ? Faith is so simple 
it is often spoiled by people trying to write 
long explanations on it. Books on faith are 
liable to muddle you. Look here ; I take this 



192 Revival Addresses 

dollar and go to Ben and say, " Do you want 
this dollar ? " " No." " Harry, do you want 
this dollar ?" "No." "John, do you want 
this dollar?" "Yes." He takes it and the 
other boys begin to cry, "Why, we didn't 
know you were in earnest." 

Now listen; Almighty God offers us Jesus 
Christ and free salvation, and now will you 
take it ? Lord, help us all to know you are in 
earnest. Our heavenly Father is not an out- 
law but a God of infinite love, who tenderly 
calls us to His arms. Will you come ? God 
help you to come. Oh, how my heart aches 
within me to see you come. I wish I could 
help you have faith in Him. Oh, the peace, 
the rest and the comfort in His service. God 
help you to know that His ways are those to be 
sought. 

" Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and 
the man that getteth understanding. For the 
merchandise of it is better than the merchandise 
of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. 
She is more precious than rubies ; and all the 
things thou canst desire are not to be compared 
unto her. Length of days is in her right hand ; 
and in her left riches and honour. Her ways 
are the ways of pleasantness, and all her paths 
are peace. She is a tree of life to them that lay 
hold upon her ; and happy is every one that re- 
taineth her. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ 



"What Must I Do to be Saved" 193 

and thou shalt be saved and thy house." Bless 
God it takes in the house. It takes in the wife 
and children. Father, believe it ; God help you 
to believe it. It takes in your home. Mothers, 
cheer up and hold on to Jesus and your boy 
will yet come home. Where is your boy ? He 
may be crossing the Atlantic now and is lost — 
cry to God; hold on to His promise. Pray 
that your boy may be saved ; that prayer may 
lasso him in his berth. 

Believe, believe, oh, Lord God, help us to be- 
lieve. Burn it into our hearts. Your boy may 
be down in some licensed saloon, joining in the 
revelry and in the guffaws whose end is hell. 
Tell God you have His promise ; call in faith, 
and some unseen power will cause that boy to 
hasten from that saloon. 

How many are willing to-night to take God 
at His word ? All who are Christians and sin- 
ners, will you stand up ? Amen. ISTow, you 
sinners and backsliders, walk up here and an- 
nounce the fact that from this day hence you are 
out for Jesus. 



VIII 

" Shorn Locks " 

11 And the lords of the Philistines came up unto her, and 
said unto her, Entice him and see wherein his great strength 
lieth, and by what means we may prevail against him, that 
we may bind him to afflict him : and we will give thee 
every one of us eleven hundred pieces of silver. ' ' —Judges 
xvi. 5. 

Samson was a judge in Israel in the days of 
the Philistines, and Samson had given the 
Philistines so much trouble they became anxious 
to get him out of the way. Samson " smote 
them hip and thigh with a great slaughter." 
He also put to death one thousand Philistines 
with the mere jawbone of an ass, besides other 
troubles Samson brought upon them. Samson 
had fallen in love in the meantime with a woman 
in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah ; 
and the lords of the Philistines conceived the 
idea that she could persuade Samson to tell 
where his great strength lay. If the Philistines 
could ever find out this secret and get posses- 
sion of him then there would come to them 
some rest. So they went to Delilah and made 
her the proposition quoted in my text, and they 
offered a pretty good price for this information. 

194 



"Shorn Locks" 195 

Listen : " Entice him, and see wherein his great 
strength lieth and by what means we may pre- 
vail against him, that we may bind him to 
afflict him ; and we will give thee every one of 
us eleven hundred pieces of silver." Delilah 
accepted their proposition, and commenced busi- 
ness at once. 

"And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I 
pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and 
wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict 
thee." I can imagine I see Samson smile, and 
say within himself, " Yes, here you go. I was 
once persuaded by my wife to tell my riddle 
and caused me to lose a wager of thirty sheets 
and thirty change of garments. And now here 
you come trying to get another secret ; well, I 
will have some fun out of this woman. I will 
tell her a lie and watch her fume and fuss. 
This will afford me a little pastime anyway." 

" And Samson said unto her, If they bind 
me with seven green withes that were never 
dried, then shall I be weak, and be as another 
man." In those days they used green withes 
to bind wild animals. " Then the lords of the 
Philistines brought up to her seven green 
withes which had not been dried, and she bound 
him with them." I can see Delilah smiling 
and saying to herself, " Isn't he easy ? I will 
soon have that cash." "Now there were men 
lying in wait, abiding with her in the chamber. 



196 Revival Addresses 

And she said, The Philistines be upon thee, 
Samson. And he broke the withes, as a thread 
of tow is broken when it toucheth fire. So his 
strength was not known." 

Delilah was shocked and of course heart- 
broken, poor woman ; I see the tears begin to 
flow and she snubs and frets, but does she quit 
the job ? No, indeed ; the devil never does. 
" And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou 
hast mocked me, and told me lies : now tell 
me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be 
bound." I can see Samson smile again and 
in his heart he says, " Well, I guess she thinks 
I am a big fool, but I will have some more 
fun while I am at it." "And he said unto 
her, If they bind me fast with new ropes that 
never were occupied, then shall I be weak, and 
be as another man. Delilah therefore took 
new ropes, and bound him therewith, and said 
unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, Samson. 
And there were liers in wait abiding in the 
chamber." 

Look at Samson, as he walks out yonder 
with a smile ; I see his muscles expand. " And 
he broke them from off his arms like a thread.' 5 
Poor Delilah ! Isn't it too bad that she has 
been fooled again ? But did she quit ? No J 
the devil never does. She is after that secret 
and she is going to have it if persisting counts. 
Just one way of escape for Samson, and that 



" Shorn Locks" 197 

is to renounce Delilah right now and leave 
her. The only way to defeat Satan is to re- 
nounce him, quit him and quit listening to his 
coaxing. 

"And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto 
thou hast mocked me, and told me lies: tell 
me wherewith thou mightest be bound." Now 
watch him; he is getting close to the truth. 
"And he said unto her, If thou weavest the 
seven locks of my head with the web." 

I don't know just what kind of looms they 
had in those days, but some of you have seen 
the looms used by your mothers and your 
grandmothers. I imagine it was something 
on that plan ; anyhow, the work was done. 
" And she fastened it with the pin, and said 
unto him, The Philistines be upon thee, 
Samson." Now Samson had been coaxed and 
tormented and teased until he was dead on 
his feet and while Delilah was weaving his 
locks with a web he fell asleep. " And he 
awaked out of his sleep, and went away with 
the pin of the beam, and with the web." 

Poor Delilah is mocked again, and is actually 
losing money instead of making the eleven 
hundred pieces of silver, because Samson has 
broken up her machinery; her loom is likely 
out of commission. Did she quit ? No. I 
tell you Satan doesn't do that. I can see her 
day after day tormenting and pressing him to 



198 Revival Addresses 

tell her wherein his great strength lay. I can 
see her weep, and snub and coax, and say, 
" Oh, Samson, how can yon treat your Delilah 
so cruelly ? I thought you loved me, but you 
have mocked me and lied to me, and, Samson, 
it is simply killing me. "Will you please tell 
me where your great strength lies ? " 

" And it came to pass when she pressed him 
daily with her words, and urged him, so that 
his soul was vexed unto death ; that he told 
her all his heart, and said unto her. There hath 
not come a razor upon mine head : for I have 
been a Nazarite unto God from my birth: if 
I be shaven, then my strength will go from 
me, and I shall become weak, and be like any 
other man." ]STow when Delilah looked into 
Samson's face she saw he had really told her 
all his heart at last. She now knows she has 
him. So Delilah sent for the lords of the 
Philistines, instructing them to come up at 
once, for Samson has at last fallen, but to be 
sure and bring the cash. And the Philistines 
came and brought the money in their hands. 

I tell you Samson was worn out. He had 
been coaxed and tormented until he was almost 
demented. Delilah caused Samson to lay his 
head on her knee and he went to sleep; and 
she called for a man, and of course that man 
was a barber, and she gave him instructions 
to shave off those seven long locks. I see the 



" Shorn Locks " 199 

barber as he applies the razor, and we see one 
lock fall, and Samson sleeps on. It is said that 
in those daj^s the barber could handle a man's 
face with so much ease and skill that he always 
put the subject sound asleep. I have never 
met a barber like that in Missouri. 

I see the second lock fall, and Delilah is 
smiling, and Samson sleeps on. I see the 
third lock fall, then the fourth, now the fifth, 
the sixth, and last, the seventh, and you have a 
bald-headed Sampson. 

"And she said, The Philistines be upon 
thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, 
and said, I will go out as at other times before, 
and shake myself. And he wist not that the 
Lord was departed from him." 

Samson's strength was gone, and he fell an 
easy victim into the hands of the Philistines. 
And what did they do ? Why, they put his 
eyes out. " And brought him down to Gaza, 
and bound him in fetters of brass ; and he did 
grind in the prison house." And there poor 
Samson worked. What is the matter, Samson ? 
" I was overcome by persuasion. I yielded to 
the tempter and I am paying the price." 

The tempter gains ground as long as we give 
him a listening ear. The devil is not through 
with that razor ; he is still using it. He is after 
your locks of moral strength, and he is not go- 
ing to be satisfied until he sees the last lock 



200 Revival Addresses 

fall, and he sends you forth blind and helpless. 
There sit under the sound of my voice to-night 
many who are paying the price of temptation. 
You are grinding at the mills of Satan with 
your eyes burned out and you are helpless. 

No man suddenly becomes very bad. Sin, 
like wasting consumption, feeds so stealthily 
that we cannot perceive when our coarse de- 
pravity arrived, but it is upon you, and to-day 
you are grinding at Satan's mills ; the Philis- 
tines of sin have burned your eyes out. 

I sometimes describe sin as I would the 
Niagara Eiver. The Niagara flows out of 
Lake Erie, between rather narrow banks, flows 
slowly, but after a while it approaches the falls 
and then gets swifter and swifter, until it at- 
tains such speed and suction, it can handle a 
human life just as easily as a cyclone can handle 
a straw. So it is in sin. The young man start- 
ing in sin doesn't expect to become bad, but just 
to enjoy sin in a mild form for a season. " I 
won't go far, but will put off salvation for a year 
or so. I will have a little fun, then I will come 
back and take up the cross." If a man were to 
say to him, " Young man, this is dangerous ; sin 
is going to grow upon you, and the first thing 
you know you will be bound and your eyes 
punched out." " Oh, no," he says, " I can con- 
trol myself. I am a strong character ; don't you 
worry about me." "But, young man, let me 



"Shorn Locks" 201 

call your attention to one thing specially ; have 
you noticed that the things which once satisfied 
you fail to satisfy now ? When you first be- 
gan to tip the social glass, you remember, one 
glass a day was enough to satisfy ; but that 
finally failed, then came two, then three, and 
then more, and finally you spent your evenings 
in the saloon, and you have lost track of the 
number of drinks it takes to satisfy. To-night 
you are a poor drunkard ; your locks of moral 
strength gone ; you are blind to the fact that 
you are helpless. Listen to me, young man ; 
the Philistines of sin have burned out your eyes 
and you are grinding at the mills of Satan, your 
feet shackled, your wrists cuffed ; you are ap- 
proaching the mighty cataract of despair and 
to-night sin handles you just as easily as the 
Niagara, near its awful leap, handles a human 
life." 

There sits a man back there who, a few years 
ago, played his first social game of cards ; for a 
time that satisfied. Then you began to play 
poker at a penny anty ; you didn't expect to be 
a gambler, but just to have a little fun. The 
penny anty finally failed to satisfy, then two 
and a half cents anty, then came five cents, 
then ten cents, then twenty-five cents, and here 
you are to-night a gambler. You would at 
times like to break the habit, but you find your 
strength gone. Sin has you bound hand and 



202 Revival Addresses 

foot, and all you can do is to grind at the prison 
mill. You were once strong ; so was Samson ; 
but he was overcome, and so have you been 
overcome. 

I would to God that I could make people 
understand that will-power has a limit, and 
when a man is persuaded to stay in sin until 
his will-power is conquered, Satan has no more 
trouble in holding him but just puts him to 
grinding while he goes on conquering others. 
Now Satan will tell you you are all right ; you 
can turn at any time; you are as strong as 
ever ; but, man, you attempt to take a stand 
for Christ to-night and you will be surprised to 
find how you are bound ; and when you attempt 
to move you will feel like you weigh at least a 
ton. Now that is the soul's agony, and your 
cry to God will not be, " Lord, forgive me or I 
perish," but, "Lord, give me back my will- 
power, for I find I am helpless and bound in 
fetters of brass." 

Many a man sits in his seat and says, " Yes, 
Lord, the preacher is telling the truth. I know 
I am a great sinner, but I will just wait a little 
longer and then I am coming." But, man, 
every day you live in sin, Satan gets a firmer 
hold on your will-power. He tempts you to 
neglect, and right now you are blind to the fact 
that you are securely bound. 

Some of you poor blind souls have now 



" Shorn Locks " 203 

reached the place where it is not the love of 
sin that holds you, but it is your blind indiffer- 
ence. If I were to ask you to-night, " Do you 
expect to be lost ? " you would no doubt say, 
" Ko, I expect to come some time, but it is 
none of your business when." 

I see drifting down the Niagara Eiver near 
the falls a boat, and in that boat is a lonely 
man ; I see he has his arms folded, and his oars 
are folded and his eyes half closed ; he is just 
drifting on. I cry to him, " Say, my friend, 
pull ashore. Can you not see you are in 
danger? Come ashore while you can." He 
looks and says, "This is my business. I will 
come ashore when I get ready. I know what 
I am doing." 

I cry out to you out there to-night, "Man, 
can you not see you are getting on dangerous 
ground ? Come to Jesus, come now." TVell, 
sir, you say in your heart, and the devil dic- 
tates the words, "I will come ashore when I 
get ready. I expect to come some time but am 
not ready now." 

I see this same man drifting closer to the 
fails, and another cries out to him to pull in, 
but he laughs and says he knows what he is 
doing — that he expects to come later. The 
third and the fourth cry to him and still the 
boat drifts on. 

Finally I see the man waking up to the fact 



204 Revival Addresses 

that his boat is going faster ; he says, " I will 
now pull in," but lo ! he has gone too far and is 
too weak to pull against the current, and I see 
him carried over the great falls, crying, 
"Lost!" 

My God, wake up men, and may they pull 
ashore while they can, and not put it off. 

Have you all heard the old story of Satan 
calling a convention in hell to discuss ways and 
means by which he could more effectually pro- 
mote his interests on earth, and to retard the 
progress of Jesus who was making inroads on 
the followers of his Satanic majesty ? Satan 
stated the object of the convention — that he 
wanted suggestions as to the best way to re- 
tard the progress of Jesus on earth. One imp 
got up and said, " I have the plan, your Majesty ; 
we will go to earth and will say to those out 
of Christ, ' There is nothing in the religion of 
the Lord Jesus Christ ; it is superstition, it is a 
sham, a myth.' " Another jumped up and said, 
"Your Majesty, that will never do, because 
many will say, ' You are mistaken because my 
parents believed it, and died happy in the 
faith.' !No, that will never do." Another got 
up and said, " Your Majesty, I have a sugges- 
tion ; go to earth and tell the sinner the Bible 
is the work of designing priests — that there is 
no truth in it ; it is a lot of fables." Another 
jumped up and said, " Xo, that won't do, be- 



" Shorn Locks " 205 

cause many sinners will say, 'You can't fool 
us; our grandfathers and grandmothers be- 
lieved it, and died happy in that belief ; our 
parents believed it, and we believe the Bible is 
true. 5 " Another then sprang to his feet and 
said, " Satan, I have it. Just go to earth and 
tell the sinner that the religion of the Lord 
Jesus Christ is true, that the Bible is the truth, 
and that there is a heaven, but there is no need 
to make an immediate decision; just put it off — 
plenty of time. Don't accept now ; put these 
matters off a little longer." Satan said, " This 
convention stands adjourned forever. We will 
go to earth and simply persuade men to delay 
for a more convenient day." And, man, that 
is exactly what Satan is persuading you to do 
to-night. 

I might walk up to a man who really has the 
strength to come, and ask him to do so, but he 
says, " Not to-night." And then falls another 
lock, and Satan rejoices and cries out, " He is 
still mine ! " Lord, help people to see the great 
danger of putting it off. Neglect! "How 
shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salva- 
tion?" 

Some years ago, I was passing by an old 
decaying mansion. I had heard a great deal 
about that old place, that in former years it had 
been one of the most imposing and expensive 
in that part of Texas. I decided I would go 



206 Revival Addresses 

through that old house to see what it looked 
like. I found the fence had long since gone to 
decay ; the shrubbery had died out ; here and 
there you could see the brick, showing where 
there was once a brick walk. The great old 
porches had fallen down, the front door-sill 
nearly rotted in two. The glass was all out of 
the windows and in many instances, up-stairs 
and down-stairs, most of the sash gone. Still 
this didn't lessen my curiosity, so I went into 
the broad hall. I saw there the great oaken 
staircase with its inlaid woodwork. I said to 
myself, "No doubt that had cost much money." 
I turned into the large room to my right. I 
looked up and saw that unquestionably this had 
been the main parlour, because its size and its 
hint at former elegance proved it. I said in 
my heart, " It has been great." But finally I 
looked down at the floor and over yonder in 
the left hand corner of the room was a long 
black snake making his way out through a 
hole. On that hot July day he had found a 
cool place in that old parlour. I looked over 
there to my right, and I saw a little green 
striped snake making also his way out. I 
looked on the old decaying hearth and there saw 
a lizard and spiders ; in fact, all kinds of creep- 
ing insects. My mind began to run backwards. 
I could see the upholstered furniture of years 
ago that ornamented that room. I could see 



u Shorn Locks" 207 

the piano. I could hear the songs of Zion and 
of love. I could see in that parlour the faces of 
loving and beautiful and innocent women. But 
now see how the scene has changed. I now 
find this old parlour inhabited by snakes, rep- 
tiles, and vermin. What is the cause of all this ? 
Neglect. The old house has been neglected 
and all beauty and use taken away, and left an 
abode for the snakes and insects. 

About two years ago, Mr. Hobbs and I were 
holding a meeting in a thrifty Oklahoma town, 
and one afternoon I was standing near one of 
the leading business corners, and near by was a 
very old man, talking to three or four other 
men. I never before heard any viler or more 
profane language than I heard falling from 
that man's lips. I was surprised to know such 
an old man could be so profane and vulgar. I 
was told by a gentleman near me that the old 
man was well off, and called a good business 
man. I asked if he ever went to church. " No," 
he said, " I don't suppose he has been to church 
in twenty years." I said to myself there is an- 
other decaying mansion. I could see him away 
back in innocent young manhood. I could see 
him going to church ; I could hear him singing 
the old songs of years ago. I could see he was, 
time and again, impressed to turn to Jesus, but 
Satan said, " Put it off," and he kept neglecting 
and driving out all desire for a nobler life, until 



2o8 Revival Addresses 

to-day he stands here crumbling away, his 
soul, mind and being filled with snakes, rep- 
tiles, filth and vermin. Horrible to think of ! 
What caused it ? Neglect. Everywhere I go 
I find some of those old decaying mansions. 
Once their thoughts were tender and loving, 
but now full of decay and stench. Young man, 
God help you to hear me. Quit your neglect- 
ing ; it would have been far better that you 
died in infancy than to live as that old man has 
lived ; he has now reached that place where all 
desire for a clean life is gone. Blind, blind ! 
The Philistines of sin have burned out his eyes. 

Young man, the sins that once caused you to 
shudder and produced blushes are practiced 
now with perfect impunity and cause no shock 
to you, even when you know everybody is 
aware of your life. "What is the cause of that ? 
Your moral strength shorn, and sin destroying 
your sight. 

A man through association can get used to 
most anything, and then learn to love it. We 
become more and more like our association. 
You can associate with a dog until you become 
doggish. You sometimes see a woman paying 
more attention to a pug-dog than to her child. 
What is the cause of it ? Why, she associates 
with the dog more than with the child. You 
can associate with a hog, until you become hog- 
gish. 



" Shorn Locks " 209 

You have all no doubt heard the story of the 
man who went to see a hog raiser. He rode 
up to the gate and said, " Hello." The hog 
raiser's wife came to the door when the man 
asked, " "Where is your husband ? " " He is out 
at the hog lot with his hogs." The man turned 
his horse to ride out there when the wife spoke 
out, " You will recognize him by having a hat 
on." 

Samson was a strong man but his associates 
were not good, and if our associates are not 
good, it is inevitable that there must come a 
yielding, a moral decay' and then blindness. 

About twenty-one years ago I was living at 
Ardmore, Indian Territory, then a frontier 
town, and one of the hardest towns in the 
"West. One day a lawyer by the name of 
Wasson came to me and said, " Burke, I want 
to take you out to a country dance to-night. I 
want you to study human nature." I agreed to 
go. He got a buggy and team from a livery 
stable and we got out to the dance a little after 
dark. It was a two-room log house — the front 
room about twenty feet square with an old- 
fashioned fireplace. We found there about a 
dozen girls and women up to middle age, and 
three old snaggle-teethed women, sitting close 
to the fire, for it was a frosty night, smoking 
their clay pipes with long cane stems. There 
were fifteen or twenty men, young and old, 



2io Revival Addresses 

loitering around, drinking whiskey, chewing, 
smoking and swearing. I don't know that I 
ever saw a meaner looking set of men. Some 
were whiskey peddlers, some were cowboys, 
some outlaws, and every one had a big six- 
shooter, and some were boasting about how 
they had made this man and that man bite the 
dust. 

The music started, two ruffians playing vio- 
lins. Partners for a cotillion were called for ; 
the set was quickly made up, and the dance be- 
gan, and when the caller said, "All prome- 
nade," every man took out his six-shooter and 
emptied it through the top of the house as 
they went round. The dance was stopped un- 
til the men could throw out the empty shells 
and reload, and away they went again, and all 
would go very well until the promenade and 
then there came the shooting again. Well, the 
girls would laugh and giggle and seemed to 
enjoy it more than any other part of the dance. 
I noticed also that those old ladies were giggling 
and seemed to enjoy it immensely. I asked 
Wasson, " Wasson, are all these girls fallen ? " 
" Oh, no, not necessarily ; they perhaps are all 
right, but they are used to this and it seems 
like fun to them." "What about those old 
women ? " " Well, they are used to it, and they 
think it is all right. I wouldn't be surprised, 
Burke, if those old women once belonged to the 



" Shorn Locks " 21 1 

church somewhere, but they have been in bad 
company so long they have forgotten about a 
clean life." I made it a point to side up close 
to one of those old ladies, and introduce myself. 
She said, " Ain't they a-havin' a good time ? " 
I said, "Do you call that a good time?" 
" "Why, yes." " Sister, where are you from ? " 
" From Hood County, Texas." " How long 
have you lived here ?" " About seven years." 
" Did you ever belong to the church ? " " Yes, 
I belonged in Texas." " Do you ever go to 
church now ? " " No, I never have a chance ; 
you see we have no meetin'sin this country." 
" What did you think of this kind of a dance 
when you first came to this country ? " "I 
thought it was awful. I thought I couldn't 
stand it." " How did you get to liking it ? " 
" Why, I just got used to it." 

Now, people, there you are, yielding to temp- 
tation, and constant association. I tell you 
Samson was a strong man mentally and physic- 
ally, but he was overcome, and had his eyes 
burned out. 

Almighty God, do turn in the power and let 
us get one glimpse at ourselves through spiritual 
eyes. Holy Spirit, help these men, these sinful 
men and these thoughtless women, to get one 
long look at themselves, and may they tremble 
wdth fear because of the things they have gotten 
used to. 



212 Revival Addresses 

I was down in Louisiana holding a meeting 
when one Saturday morning a man came to me 
and asked if I would like to go fishing. I told 
him I would. He said he would get the bait and 
in the afternoon take me down on the Bayo, and 
we would catch some game fish. After dinner 
we got in the buggy and were soon there. 
Some parts of Louisiana, you know, are noted 
for cranes, frogs, tadpoles, snakes and alligators. 
When I walked up to the Bayo, I found a man 
on a log that reached out into the water com- 
fortably seated and pulling out nice fish. He 
was about twelve or fourteen feet from the 
bank, and lying stretched out on that log be- 
tween him and the bank was a large, black, 
rusty moccasin. I looked about eight or ten 
feet beyond him and there on a limb was an- 
other. Just below that log a few yards lay 
two others, and above the log a few feet and 
close to the water lay another. Well, every- 
where I looked I saw snakes. I said to him, 
"Look there. Don't you see that snake?" 
" Yes." " Do you see that one the other side 
of you ? " " Yes." " Do you see those down 
there?" "Yes." "Why don't you kill 
them?" "Why, they ain't a-pesterin' me." 
Think of it, he had gotten used to them. I told 
my friend I was ready to go back. I was not used 
to them, and I had no desire to get acquainted. 
I went back to town and never wet a hook. 



" Shorn Locks " 213 

I walk the streets of your town. I see 
yonder a saloon. I see two young men walk 
in, arm in arm. I am shocked. I say it is 
simply too bad. I see three ladies walking 
along ; they see them enter and take no notice 
of it. I ask them if they saw those young men 
enter that saloon. "Yes." "Didn't it shock 
you and grieve you to see it ? " " Why, we 
never thought about it." Can you not see the 
point ? They have gotten used to it. 

I tell you a man or a woman by association 
can get used to anything. I was once invited 
to go in bathing in a lake in East Texas. The 
lake looked inviting for a bath. There was a 
spring-board leading out over the water. I was 
a good swimmer and especially a good diver. 
I hastily got ready for the plunge. I asked 
the boys how deep the water was beyond the 
spring-board. They told me it was about 
twelve feet deep. I made a dash, and leaped as 
far as I could out into the lake head first, and 
made up my mind to show them how to dive. 
When I came up, I thought I must have arisen 
in a new territory, for all around me I saw 
snags and stumps sticking out above the water. 
It proved to be a half dozen alligators, that had 
gone out to investigate and were taking a close 
squint at me. I turned towards the shore and 
never kicked so hard and furiously in my life. 
It seemed that I couldn't make over six inches 



214 Revival Addresses 

at a stroke. I finally made the shore puffing, 
blowing and excited, and not saying a word I 
ran and began to make my arrangements to 
dress. " What are you going to do, Burke ? " 
" I am going to put on my clothes." " Why, 
what is the matter ? " " Didn't you see those 
alligators ? " " Yes, but they won't bother you ; 
we never pay any attention to them." " That is 
all right, gentlemen. I am not used to them, 
and if the alligators want to bathe here, I will 
find another pool." 

God help you men who have gotten used to 
vile association. Lord, help that man who has 
gotten used to the saloon, and enters it with as 
much ease as I entered this tabernacle this 
evening. Oh, Lord, help that poor young man 
who has gotten used to the billiard hall with all 
its decay. God help the man who gets used to 
the gambling hall reeking with profanity and 
vulgarity, and drunkenness, and thieves. Blind, 
blind ! The Philistines of sin have burned their 
eyes out. Let's all sing : 

" Oh, Lord ! send the power just now ; 
Oh, Lord ! send the power just now ; 
Oh, Lord ! send the power just now, 
And baptize every one." 

Bad company will certainly fix you. Samson 
got into bad company and was overcome, and, 
man, woman, bad company will without doubt 
rob you of your moral strength. 



"Shorn Locks" 215 

I would advise young men to be careful about 
the class of books they read. Tom Payne's 
" Age of Reason " has destroyed many a man. 
Payne made it his business to outreason you ; 
you are not capable of coping with him. It is 
surprising the misery and disgrace brought 
about by the reading of vicious books. 

A great many years ago, there lived near the 
Brazos River in Texas a rich farmer. He had 
two plantations — one sugar, the other cotton. 
Either plantation was worth at least forty 
thousand dollars. This farmer had also many 
cattle, mules and fine horses and pasture lands, 
and about thirty-eight thousand dollars in the 
bank. He had only two sons, John and Jim. 
In his will he gave John one farm and Jim the 
other, and divided the remaining property and 
all the cash equally between them. You see 
the boys got a good cash heritage. That is all 
right as far as it goes, but that father failed to 
leave the boys a spiritual heritage. He was a 
believer in Tom Payne, and ridiculed the re- 
ligion of the Lord Jesus Christ ; he also scoffed 
at the Church. He taught his boys not to 
respect the Church but to make money ; that 
if they had money the world would be bound 
to respect them. The father died and the boys 
divided the property, and in the wind-up they 
fell out over a red shoat. They went to the 
court over it. The case was appealed, and then 



216 Revival Addresses 

handed back, and the final result was when one 
brother won the case, the other took a double- 
barrel shotgun and blew his brother's brains 
out. He was sent to the penitentiary for life ; 
in the penitentiary he became insane, was sent 
to the asylum and died there. 

" Be not deceived ; God is not mocked ; for 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
reap." That father had sown and he had to 
reap. 

Listen : " For he that soweth to his flesh, 
shall of the flesh reap corruption." He had 
sown to the flesh and corruption showed up in 
his children. God help you blind fathers, whose 
chief desire is to leave cash and property for 
your children, neglecting salvation. "We have 
too many parents leaving behind them more 
cash than character, and ruining their sons and 
daughters with cash. For a time they walk 
the " great white way," until the Philistines of 
sin destroy their eyes, and they grind at the 
mills of Satan. 

Young man, wake up and come to Christ 
while you may ; don't get yourself tied and 
bound like that old man sitting over there 
with the last lock fallen, no strength left, his 
eyes put out, and spending his last days grind- 
ing at the mills of Satan and his eternity with- 
out hope. Lord, turn in the power, and help 
the boys and girls to act while they may. 



" Shorn Locks " 217 

u I love them that love Me ; and those that 
seek He early shall find He." 

A few years ago when I was living at Busk, 
Texas, I received a letter from the editor of a 
religious magazine asking me to send an article 
on temperance and to have the article there by 
a certain date. I saw I would have to be in a 
hurry, and immediately after lunch went to my 
library and began the work. I had gotten 
pretty well along in the article when I heard 
the door open and close gently. I didn't look 
up to see who it was, but it proved to be my little 
four-year-old girl, Eowena. She had in her 
little hand a bunch of wild flowers, and stuck 
them up close to my face and said, " Papa, 
wook ! wook ! me b'ou't you some f owers, papa ; 
wook ! " I didn't want to lose the chain of my 
thought, and I pushed her away, and said, 
" Pwun on, darling ; can't you see papa is busy ? " 
I worked on but in a little bit I heard her 
sobbing. I looked round, and saw her stand- 
ing off in the corner of the room, the tears 
streaming down her little face and the flowers 
falling through her fingers. She said, " Papa, 
me font you would want the Powers and me 
went and dot 'em but you wouldn't have 'em." 
Oh, my God ! People, listen : I would have at 
that moment given my right arm to have been 
able to undo it, but it was too late. 

Listen; to-night the Holy Spirit comes to 



218 Revival Addresses 

you and says in love and tenderness, "Come 
to Jesus ; Jesus wants you ; He invites you." 
But you push Him aside and say, " Go on. 
Can you not see I have my mind on something 
else ? Don't disturb me." The Spirit takes His 
departure and the devil rejoices because another 
lock has fallen, and he has victory over your 
soul. Will you come home to-night before your 
strength is gone ? 



IX 

Halting 

"And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How 
long halt ye between two opinions ? If the Lord be God, 
follow Him : but if Baal, then follow him. And the people 
answered him not a word." — 1 Kings xviii, 21. 

When the Lord speaks to a man it usually 
closes all argument. The Lord leaves him 
without excuse. In Isaiah we read, "Come 
now, and let us reason together, saith the 
Lord ; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall 
be as white as snow ; though they be red like 
crimson, they shall be as wool." There you 
are; God has left your mouth closed. Even 
your sins cannot be framed into an excuse to 
keep you from serving the Lord. No depth 
too great for the Lord to reach down and heal. 
And now the Lord wants decision. He puts it 
practically and plainly: "How long halt ye 
between two opinions ? " In other words why 
don't you decide ? "Why don't you make up 
your minds fully, and when you do, "if the 
Lord be God follow Him; but if Baal then 
follow him. And the people answered him not 
a word." They had nothing to say ; the Lord 
had spoken and their mouths were closed. 

219 



220 Revival Addresses 

I think it is natural for us all to look round 
and find out the things most profitable to us. 
If I have a chance to work for either of two 
men, I am sure to look into their characters, 
and if the reputation of one to carry out his 
contracts is better than the other, I will un- 
questionably choose him because it is likely to 
be more profitable. I take less chances. An- 
other thing we always consider, and that is the 
chance for promotion. If I find better oppor- 
tunities to be promoted under one leader than 
another I will certainly choose that leader. 

Now if on due reflection you think it is best 
to serve Baal, if you think it is more profitable 
to serve him here and through eternity then 
get out and follow him. But if you decide it 
is more profitable to serve the Lord, then quit 
your halting ; get out and follow Him like a 
faithful soldier. The whole matter is left to 
you, a matter of your own choosing. 

I find after due deliberation Joshua came to 
a decision after he entered the promised land. 
Listen to him : " And if it seem evil unto you to 
serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye 
will serve; whether the gods your fathers 
served that were on the other side of the flood, 
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye 
dwell; but as for me and my house we will 
serve the Lord." 

" If it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord," 



Halting 221 

then declare you are against Him and be a 
follower of Baal. If you find fault with the 
Lord and find no fault with Baal, say so and 
quit your halting. If the teachings of Baal 
are ennobling and beautifying find it out. 
God wants you to quit your halting. He 
wants you to choose like a man. If I were 
a candidate for office, I would think more of 
the man who took a positive stand against me 
than for the man who would say, " Well, I 
think it is right to vote for Burke ; he is the 
right man for the office. I know that and I 
know the other fellow is not fit for the office 
but I guess I will vote for him." I would 
rather the man would get out and fight me 
than whine and halt, and then try to com- 
promise with me by saying he knows I am the 
better man. You find too many trying to 
compromise with the Lord by saying, " Yes, I 
know it is right to serve the Lord but I guess I 
cannot do it now. I expect to vote for Him 
some time, but not now. I know it is wrong 
to vote for Baal, but I will stay with him 
a while yet." Now listen ; the Lord wants 
you to renounce one or the other. If you de- 
cide for the Lord He wants you to follow Him, 
but if Baal, then follow him and get the 
question fully settled. Is it profitable to serve 
the Lord ? The greatest men on earth have 
said it is. If you don't think it is a good 



222 Revival Addresses 

thing, just make it a point to talk to some of 
the Lord's strong men and hear their con- 
clusion. 

You can criticize this old Bible all you want 
to, but you cannot blot out the burning truths 
it teaches, and only inspired minds could 
possibly get as much truth in an abridged 
form. The man who reads it with a view of 
being benefited is the man who can readily see 
it. The man who reads it to criticize it only 
does so to excuse his sins. 

I was once in conversation with a learned 
lawyer. He was quite an historian, and was 
specially posted in ancient history. In our 
conversation we drifted to the Bible and it 
turned out that he was trying to be an infidel. 
I asked him to name some of his objections to 
the Bible. He named one of the books to which 
he objected, and I said, " All right, judge, we 
will throw out that book. Now name another." 
He did so, and I said, "We will throw out 
that book. Now, judge, we have two books in 
the Bible gone." He finally named five points 
in the Bible he didn't believe. " All right, 
judge, we have five books we have thrown out 
of the Bible ; now name another." " Well, I 
believe that is all." " Judge, we have sixty- 
one other books left in the Bible ; now what 
are you going to do with them ? Judge, what 
do you think of the teachings of Christ, any- 



Halting 223 

way ? What do you really think of Him ? " 
" Well, Burke, I think He is one of the greatest 
moral teachers the world has ever known. I 
think His teachings are good, and we need 
them, but I cannot accept the proposition that 
He is the Son of God." " And yet, judge, you 
think He was right." "Yes." "Judge, do 
you swear ? " " Yes, I am sorry to say I some- 
times do." " Do you think it is right ? " " No, 
I do not." " Is Christ against it ? " " Yes, He 
is." "Do you ever drink to excess ? " "Yes, 
I sometimes do." " Do you think it is right ? " 
" No, it is not right." " Is Jesus against it ? " 
"Yes." "Do you gamble?" "Yes, I some- 
times play a little poker." "Is it right?" 
"No, it is not." "Do you think Jesus is 
against it?" "Yes, Jesus taught the golden 
rule." "Now, judge, listen. If you were to 
practice the things you know to be right as 
earnestly as you practice the things you know 
to be wrong, you would become a great be- 
liever in the divinity of Jesus Christ." He 
said, "Burke, it is plain. I tell you what I 
will do. I will tear up my old books of phi- 
losophy, and give you my hand that I will just 
accept Christ as my guide and leader and will 
begin to read the Bible and see where I land." 
The next morning I was passing his room and 
I saw him reading the Bible, and I said, 
" Judge, you seem to be at it." "Yes, I told 



224 Revival Addresses 

you I was going to begin." About three 
months after that I met him on the train, and 
I asked him how he was getting along follow- 
ing Christ. "Why, Burke, I was soon con- 
vinced that Jesus is divine, and I have joined 
the church and have established a family altar." 
There you are ; as soon as he was convinced 
that the Lord was God, he followed Him. 

I find those who early in life decide to 
follow the Lord are always proud of an early 
decision when old age comes and those who 
halted for years are always sorry they ever 
halted when they do step out. 

I was once in conversation with a very 
successful business man in Texas. He made 
money with everything he touched. On one 
occasion, I was congratulating him on his fine 
business ability. He said, " Steve, I think I 
am about the poorest business man in Texas." 
" Why is that ? " " Well, the Bible says, ' Seek 
ye first the kingdom of God and His right- 
eousness, and all these things shall be added 
unto you.' Jesus Christ puts seeking the 
kingdom of God as the first and most important 
business proposition, and I was about fifty 
years old before I sought Christ, and when I 
think of the cream of my life having been 
wasted following after Baal, I call myself a 
mighty poor business man." 

My theme is "Halting." Every day you 



Halting 225 

halt is only adding more fuel to the fires of 
regret should you in future years decide to 
follow the Lord. You must reap sorrow for 
the neglect you are now sowing. Halting ; 
why will you. halt between two opinions ? If 
it is right to follow the Lord then do it, and 
quit listening to Baal. 

Some years ago I was in conversation with 
three millionaires. The first one said, " Well, 
I thank God I made the decision for Christ 
when I was seven years old and I have never 
seen the day I regretted it. I have always 
found it profitable to serve the Lord. I always 
give one-tenth of my income to the cause of 
Christ, and often I give more. I can always 
find time to serve God and I can spend as 
much as an hour in every twenty-four in reading 
His word and communing with Him." The 
second one said, " Well, you beat me. I didn't 
come to Christ until I was fifteen years old, 
but I have at all times found it profitable to 
serve Him, and I have never had an occasion 
to go back into the world. I can always find 
time to go to church and to read my Bible, and 
I have found this time without neglecting 
business. I also always pay at least one-tenth to 
the Lord." The third said, "You both beat 
me. I was seventeen years old before I came 
to Christ, but I have never regretted it, but 
have always been glad I settled it early. I also 



226 Revival Addresses 

have become rich, and I made my fortune with- 
out backsliding." 

I tell you, dear people, when I hear three 
financial giants saying it is profitable to serve 
the Lord, I think it is time for others to listen. 
I have often heard the expression that no man 
can become a millionaire and be honest. I tell 
you that is a great mistake, for I have seen a 
few millionaires who could account for every 
dollar they made, and I found they made it by 
looking deeper into the future than you and I, 
and then invested where you and I wouldn't 
have put a dollar. As far as I am concerned, I 
admire their foresight. I admire men who 
have foresight enough to prepare early to meet 
their God. You had the same chance to get 
rich that A had. He invested and you halted. 
You have the same chance to go to heaven that 
B has. He chose the Lord and you are halting. 
The disappointments we find along the way in 
following Baal are enough to cause every man 
to say, " I will not halt another second." 

It is said that when Mr. Moody had built his 
first church in Chicago he had arranged just 
back of the pulpit in a motto made of gas jets 
the words " God is love." When asked why he 
did it, Mr. Moody said he wanted to burn 
the words " God is love " down into the heart 
of some poor sinner. Some months after that a 
man was walking down the street contemplating 






Halting 227 

suicide. He had been rejected in the Masonic 
order, and in the Odd Fellows, and in the 
Knights of Pythias, and he was now friendless 
and forsaken. He was passing by Mr. Moody's 
church, and looked in. Mr. Moody was preach- 
ing, but he looked beyond and saw, for the 
motto could be seen from the street when the 
church door was open, the words " God is love." 
He passed on, and kept repeating, " God is 
love." "Why, that is exactly what I want. I 
want love," and he turned and went back. He 
stood out on the street and kept saying over 
and over, " God is love." He then went in and 
sat away back, still repeating in his heart, 
" God is love." Then the tears began to roll 
down his face. When Mr. Moody closed his 
sermon he went back to that man and said, 
" What are you weeping about ? " He said, " I 
read those words, ' God is love.' That is what 
I needed to know." Thank God, those words 
had burned their way down into a sinner's 
heart, and he quit halting. 

Holy Spirit, burn this sermon down into the 
hearts of sinners and may they quit their halt- 
ing and begin an earnest service for the Lord. 
Oh, sinner, how can you halt ? Can you show 
me a single good thing in following Baal ? I 
can show you dozens of reasons why you should 
follow the Lord, but can you show me a single 
reason why you should not ? Why do you halt ? 



228 Revival Addresses 

I was once conducting a meeting in Texas. 
Attending that meeting was a young lady whose 
thorough indifference to every appeal I made 
attracted my attention. She had an intelligent 
face, and I was told she was well educated, but 
very worldly. One night I called for decisions 
and quite a number responded. I told a 
preacher to continue the call and I would go 
out among the audience and do some personal 
work. I went straight to this young lady, and 
after introducing myself, our conversation ran 
about as follows: "Are you a Christian?" 
" No, sir." " Do you want to be a Christian ? " 
" No, sir." " Do you know whom you are 
serving ? " " Yes, sir." " Do you know where 
you are going ? " "I do." " Are you quite 
content ? " "I certainly am or I wouldn't re- 
main as I am." " You don't mean to tell me 
you are really content to lose heaven ? " " Why, 
of course I am. It is a matter of choice, and I 
have made my choice. I love the pleasures of 
this world and I will not give them up. Not 
one of us who are in sin has a valid excuse ; we 
are going on in sin because we want to. If I 
wanted to go to heaven, I would settle the 
question right now. I despise a negative man 
or woman who say they want to be saved and 
then go on serving Satan. Why don't they tell 
the truth about it — that they love the service 
of Baal? I am in love with sin; I love to 



Halting 229 

dance ; I love to play cards, and I am not going 
to give it up. There are a great many in this 
house just like I am. You could step out there 
and say to all the sinners, if such a thing were 
possible, that you have the power to take away 
their sins and to give them a new life, and 
many would jump through these windows to 
get away. They are going to hell because they 
want to. They may not confess it to you, but 
it is a fact all the same." I told her she was 
just a little too much for me, and I left her ; 
but listen, my friends ; it was about two nights 
after this I saw this young lady most gloriously 
saved, and the last time I heard from her she 
was a power for good. About a year later her 
pastor told me that afterwards she joined the 
church and the Sunday-school superintendent 
gave her a class of seventeen boys aged from 
thirteen to seventeen years. One Sunday morn- 
ing the pastor opened the doors of the church 
calling for new recruits, when one of her boys 
came up and asked for membership. The next 
Sunday two others came up. The next Sun- 
day another, and Sunday after Sunday from 
one to three of those boys would come forward 
and join the church, until the last one had come 
in. The pastor said further that he noticed 
every time one would come forward to join the 
church, their teacher would shed tears of joy. 
After they had all joined, he asked her how she 



230 Revival Addresses 

managed it, and this is what she said : " Every 
Sunday morning before I started to Sunday- 
school, I went to my room, locked myself in, 
got on my knees and asked God to help me 
teach the spiritual side of the lesson, and then 
I prayed for my boys one by one, asking God to 
help me win him for Christ, and God answered 
my prayers." 

I would to God we had more teachers just 
like her. I do wish we had. 

I am now going to repeat an illustration that 
I got from a converted infidel. I shall not give 
his name, but will call him doctor. You will 
find his reasoning unanswerable. I have seen 
a great number make the decision for the Lord 
after they heard it. I met this doctor and said, 
" Doctor, are you a Christian ? " " Burke, I 
have been expecting you to ask me that ques- 
tion and I have an answer prepared for you. 
Burke, did you know I used to be called an 
infidel?" "No." "Well, I was, and likely 
more. I was as I thought thoroughly founded 
on the rock of unbelief. Here is about the way 
I figured on it. I once dwelled in the land of 
unconsciousness. I lay there sleeping. Now 
if God had come and had awakened me to con- 
sciousness, and had said, ' You look yonder at 
the inhabitants of earth. See them in their 
mad haste and frenzied struggle to get the 
dollar. Look at the sin, the stench and misery 



Halting 231 

you must meet. Look at the wars, and the 
shedding of blood. Look at jails and peni- 
tentiaries. And then show me the churches in 
their feeble battle to remedy it all.' I would 
have said, ' Lord, don't create me, but let me 
sleep on through eternity for I can see nothing 
there but a fight from the cradle to the grave.' 
But God created me just the same, and I ig- 
nored His word, and defied Jesus. I said, 
' God, if there is a God, you created me with- 
out my consent, and now you can do just as 
you please with me. I am not going to bow 
my knee ; I am not going to Sunday-school or 
to church.' I didn't swear, because I always 
did despise profanity. I didn't play cards, be- 
cause successful men don't. I didn't enter a 
saloon. I never touched a drink because I 
knew it would injure my business. But one 
day there came to my mind in my office the 
thought ' Eighteousness ! What is it, any- 
how ? ' It worried me all day. The next day 
it came up again and I couldn't shake it off. 
' What does Jesus teach, and what does it mean 
to follow Him, and what does it mean to follow 
Baal ? What is the difference, anyway ? Can 
it be understood, etc.?' Day after day the 
thought clung to me. I couldn't imagine what 
caused it, but since then I found out my old 
mother had decided to pray for me until I was 
saved. One day I said to myself, ' I will go 



232 Revival Addresses 

and get me a Testament and I will study it and 
find out for myself just what following Christ 
means, and what following Baal means.' I 
read day after day until I read the New Testa- 
ment through. I read it through carefully the 
second time, and then the third time. I then 
got some paper and a pencil and I drew a long 
line. At the left of that line and at the top I 
wrote the name Baal ; under the name I wrote 
the word transgression — for the followers of 
Baal are called transgressors. At the right of 
that line and at the top I wrote the word 
Jesus, and under that name righteousness — 
for the followers of Christ are called righteous. 
And now you have my idea ; the goats on the 
left, and the sheep on the right ; that is the 
Bible way. Burke, do you know the first point 
of transgression as laid down by Paul ? " " No. 
You go on, doctor ; I am interested." 

" The first point is disobedience to parents ; 
the next, deceitful, proud boasters, malignity, 
debaters, whisperers, fornication, covetousness, 
maliciousness, full of envy, backbiters, haters of 
God, without understanding, without natural 
affection, unmerciful, murderers. Now, Burke, 
there is the skeleton of transgression. Now let 
us see what that carries with it. What do we 
really find on the side of Satan ? He has his 
followers, and who are they ? We find first 
the moralist. 'He that is not with Me is 



Halting 233 

against Me; and he that gathereth not with 
Me, scattereth.' So we find the moral man on 
the side of transgressors. We find on that side 
the liar. We find the drunkard, we find the 
gambler, we find the thief, we find the harlots, 
we find the pickpockets, we find the robber, we 
find the highwaymen, we find the infidels, we 
find the profane swearers, we find the anarch- 
ists, we find the saloons, we find the jails, we 
find the penitentiaries, we find the convicts, we 
find tears, we find blood, we find sorrow, we 
find broken hearts, we find weeping wives, we 
find weeping mothers, we find ragged and 
starving children, we find divorces, we find 
filth, we find decay, we find ruin. My God, 
what a picture ! I call myself a gentleman and 
a doctor, and yet I am classed as a follower of 
Satan and just look at my company. Why, 
Burke, I have at different times found myself 
criticizing some church-member. Why didn't 
I stop and point out that infidel, that gambler, 
that drunkard, that harlot, or that thief and 
say they belong to my side? I found no 
churches on the side of Satan, no church-bells 
to ring, no sermons preached, no Sunday-schools, 
no songs of Zion, but taken as a whole a putre- 
fying mass of humanity drifting downwards ; 
at some points the immoral stench was too 
much for any man of pride to endure. And I 
called myself a gentleman and here is my com- 



234 Revival Addresses 

pany. On every hand I find my fellow man 
wallowing in the mire of moral decay. I hear 
the scream of the fallen girl as she plunges 
from her lofty social perch into that black 
damnable gulf of sin and shame from which so 
few have ever been rescued. I see yonder in 
that brilliantly lighted ballroom that seventeen- 
year-old girl, beautiful, light-hearted and free. 
She is petted and flattered ; she is envied by 
all, because of her proficiency as a dancer. I 
see her get bolder and bolder ; I see her in the 
waltz moving like a dream in the arms of the all- 
round sport. Three years hence, I see her dying 
in a filthy, dirty, musty hole called a room. Sin, 
disease and starvation have claimed her body 
and soul ; and her last effort is to raise to her 
lips that black bottle containing one more 
drink of rum. She swallows it, and with 
eyes set in their sockets, and the little 
hands clinched in convulsions, she cries out 
the one word, 'Lost,' and she is gone. And yet, 
Burke, I find all this sin and death on the side 
of Satan. 

" I see yonder the young man going out for 
a good time. I see him enter the saloon ; I ask 
him why he is going there. He says, * Just for 
a little fun.' I see the appetite grows on him, 
and he stays out later and later at nights— 
'Just for a little fun.' I see him go to the bank, 
where he is employed, with red eyes, and a 



Halting 235 

nervous hand — 'Just for a little fun.' I see 
him as he allows the love of drink and game 
to get the mastery of him, loses his salary at the 
poker table, and his poor helpless wife and 
child hungry and cold — ' Just for a little fun.' 
I hear the bank officials say to him, ' We need 
you no longer.' I see him walk out of that 
bank groaning the groans of hell — ' Just for a 
little fun.' I see him standing yonder on that 
street corner in December when the thermom- 
eter is ten degrees below zero. He has on an 
old seedy suit, no overcoat, no gloves, his shoes 
patched, and he has on a last year's straw hat 
— 'Just for a little fun.' I see him as he reels, 
late at night, to his hovel, to his starving wife 
and child, the woman who was the happy wife 
now dying of starvation and a broken heart. I 
see him grab a poker, and with one blow he 
smashes her skull, and with another that poor 
maniac brains his child — ' Just for a little fun.' 
I see him stand on the scaffold ; the black cap 
has been drawn down, and the sheriff says, 
* Good-bye,' and just as the trap falls, I hear 
his blood-curdling scream, ' Lost,' — ' Just for a 
little fun.' I tell you, Burke, the road of trans- 
gression is filled with many ghastly and loath- 
some sights, and I am on that side and I call 
myself a gentleman. I not only find disap- 
pointments and grief all along the way, but in 
the end I find death and a hell awaiting. I 



236 Revival Addresses 

tell you, Burke, it got too strong for me. I 
don't like the fruits of sin. 

" Now, Burke, do you know the first point 
of righteousness?" "Go on, doctor." "The 
first point is will-power — 'Whosoever will/ 
Then you must pass through the gates of re- 
pentance. You must quit your sins, and then 
you ' add to your faith virtue ; and to virtue 
knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; 
and to temperance patience ; and to patience 
godliness ; and to godliness brotherly kind- 
ness; and to brotherly kindness charity.' 
There is your skeleton. Let us see what that 
carries with it. Jesus is the leader and what 
does He lead us into ? 

" On that side we find rest, and we find it 
promised — ' Come unto Me, all ye that labour 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest/ 
We find peace, and that is promised. ' Thou 
wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is 
stayed on Thee ; because he trusteth in Thee.' 
We find happiness because it is promised — 
i Happy is that people whose God is the Lord.' 
We have hope, because the Lord has promised 
it — ' Bejoicing in hope ; patient in tribulation ; 
continuing instant in prayer.' We have love 
because we are promised it — ' And the God of 
love and peace shall be with you.' We have 
comfort because it is promised — i As one whom 
his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.' 



Halting 237 

We are promised prosperity — ' And he shall be 
like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that 
bringeth forth his fruit in his season ; his leaf 
also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth 
shall prosper.' We don't find over there the 
profane. We don't find the liars, we don't find 
the drunkards, we don't find the gamblers, we 
dcn't find the harlots, we don't find the thief, we 
don't find the outlaw, we don't find the saloons, 
we don't find the jails, we don't find the gal- 
lows. We hear the Sunday-school bells ring ; 
we hear the church-bells. We see fathers and 
mothers and children flocking to church. We 
hear the organs peal, we hear songs of Zion, we 
hear prayers made and sermons preached. We 
find happy homes, we find happy wives and 
mothers, we find smiles, we find joy, we find 
sunshine, we find contentment, in the end we 
find eternal life, with Christ our Saviour. 

" What a picture, and I call myself a physi- 
cian and a gentleman, and I on the side of Satan. 
Everything in this life and in eternity on the 
side of the Lord. And yet men will halt. I 
took myself up again, and I in my mind went 
down to death. I followed my soul on to the 
judgment bar, and I heard the Judge say, 
' Depart, I know ye not.' ' But hold on, Lord ; 
I didn't do anything bad on earth,' The Lord 
says, ' Whom did you choose on earth, and whom 
did you serve? Did you deny Me before 



238 Revival Addresses 

men ? ' ' Yes.' ' Well, then, you chose Satan/ 
I had,I found, been guilty of the greatest offense. 
I had rejected Christ, and that is the sin that 
damns. 

"Then I turned away. I found myself 
walking off with the gambler, the thief, the 
harlot, the drunkard and the libertine, and the 
outlaw. There was no difference because we 
had all rejected Christ alike. I found my in- 
fluence for evil greater than the gambler's, 
greater than the drunkard's, greater than the 
thief's, and how could I expect any lighter 
punishment ? What a picture ! Cast out be- 
cause I didn't have the courage to choose the 
Lord. I went to hell, just like every lost soul 
there has gone. I went because I was found on 
the side of Satan. I hear a roll call in hell. 
' A here.' ' What are you here for ? ' 'I was 
a murderer, I was a highwayman, but my 
sentence was for rejecting Christ.' 'B here.' 
' What are you here for ? ' 'I was a drunkard 
and a gambler, but these charges were not 
brought up against me. The charge was I 
failed to choose Christ.' Then they called my 
name. I said, ' Here.' ■ What are you here 
for?' 'Nothing.' 'Nothing?' ' Yes, noth- 
ing.' 'What were you guilty of on earth?' 
' Nothing.' ' What were your sins ? ' ' Noth- 
ing.' 'Well, how came you here?' 'Well, 
Satan, I chose you instead of the Lord, and they 



Halting 239 

sent me here because of my choice.' ' Ha, ha, I 
got your soul cheap, didn't I ? ' I tell you, 
Burke, the blackest sin laid down in the Bible 
is denying Christ. That is the sin that damns 
all." 

Now, people, as a matter of digression, I 
want to say to you that I don't believe there is 
a refined lady under the sound of my voice, who 
cannot readily see the points brought out by 
that converted infidel and I don't believe there 
is one of them who will think of remaining on 
the side of Satan, because she simply cannot af- 
ford it. She is not going to remain on the side 
of all the filth of earth, when she can see there 
are only two sides to the question — either on the 
side of Satan or on the side of Christ. No half 
way grounds about that. I don't think there is 
a man of refinement after seeing this picture 
can sit there and claim he is satisfied to remain 
on the side of Satan. He cannot afford to do 
it. 

" Burke, do you know what I did ? " " No." 
"Why, I just stepped from the side of trans- 
gression over to the side of righteousness. I 
said, i Now, God, if there is a God, I can see 
the Bible is right ; it teaches truth as far as the 
sins of earth are concerned, and I come to Thee 
in blind distress and I pray Thee to teach me 
how to believe in Thee. Lord God, give me 
faith.' I began to pray and read the Bible just 



240 Revival Addresses 

like I thought a Christian ought to, and the next 
Sunday I went down and joined the Methodist 
Church. The preacher asked me if I had been 
converted. I told him I had stepped out from 
transgression to righteousness. That is what 
the Bible teaches us to do. He could ask me 
no more questions. I was received. I went to 
Sunday-school and to church, and kept on liv- 
ing just like I thought a Christian ought to live, 
and I tell you, Burke, in less than six weeks, 
the biggest case of old-time religion broke out 
in me you ever saw. And I am glad to tell 
you I have chosen the Lord, and am prepared 
to meet Him." 
Why halt ye? 



" The Way of Transgressors is Hard " 

i l Good understanding giveth favour ; but the way of tran- 
gressors is hard." — Prov. xiii. 15. 

If I were to loosen my grasp on this Bible that 
I hold in my hand it would fall to the floor by 
the laws of gravitation ; and just as naturally is 
it conceded that when a bad man dies a trans- 
gressor, he is lost by the gravity of God's laws. 
Just as naturally as this book would fall to the 
floor were I to loosen my hold of it, just as 
naturally is it understood that when a righteous 
man dies he is saved. There it is, the bad man 
lost, the good man saved. 

When it comes to preaching the Gospel we 
really have but two propositions before us : 
transgression and righteousness. Every man 
and woman here to-night is either saved or un- 
saved ; no compromise in this case ; and if you 
are not saved it is the preacher's duty to try to 
lead you into the light. Splitting hairs on 
theology has never led a soul to Christ and 
never will. I get ashamed of some preachers 
who are full to the chin on dogmas and im- 
material points in theology, and yet have never 

241 



242 Revival Addresses 

led a soul to Christ, and when it comes to en- 
treating the poor lost soul to turn, they are as 
empty as a drum. 

Now, I want to first rivet my text in your 
minds. When I preach on a text, I like to call 
attention to it so often that I leave it ringing 
in your ears for days. Some preachers think 
the more Scripture a man quotes the greater his 
ability, but you listen to this ; it is not the num- 
ber of verses a preacher quotes that does you 
good but it is that verse of Scripture that he 
fastens on your mind ; and I, feeling and know- 
ing the deep truth of my text, want to write it on 
your hearts so forcibly that you will be haunted 
by the sting of transgression, until you will say, 
" For the sake of Jesus I quit it. 55 

Listen : " The way of trangressors is hard." 
There is not a soul in this tabernacle to-night, 
who has reached the age of fifteen years, who 
hasn't observed enough already to believe this 
text is true. Infidels believe it is true. Atheists 
must confess it. All admit alike that if we sow 
to the flesh we must reap corruption, and sow- 
ing to the flesh is transgression. 

The human mind, as I have tried to tell you 
in other sermons, cannot remain at the same 
point. We must improve or recede. The 
righteous man must grow in grace every day, 
or he is backsliding. I have heard men boast 
that they stood at about the same mark in 



" The Way of Transgressors is Hard " 243 

righteousness all the time. I don't believe a 
word of it. That transgressor out there would 
come as near telling the truth if he were to say 
he is no harder than he was ten years ago. If 
we are truly righteous we get better every day 
for we love to study the Word of God and it is 
through the Word we grow in grace. 

" The way of transgressors is hard." Did 
you ever notice how easy it is to locate trans- 
gressors ? Did you know Satan brands every 
one of his subjects? You know it is said, 
" The face is the index of character, the throne 
of emotions, the battle-field of passions, the 
catalogue of dispositions, the map of the mind 
and the geography of the soul." I might walk 
out there this evening and it wouldn't be neces- 
sary for me to ask you whether or not you are 
righteous. If you are, your face shows it. 
" They that be wise shall shine as the bright- 
ness of the firmament." When you approach 
a truly righteous man, he can look you squarely 
in the eye, and Jesus seems to peep through 
the windows of his soul and say, " I have pos- 
session of this castle." Not so with the trans- 
gressor; he feels guilty and his countenance 
shows it. You often see the fox face, the bull- 
dog face, the sneak face, the impotent face, the 
coward's face, the thief's face, the villain's face, 
and the egotist's face, the indifferent face and 
the drunkard's face. All of them belong to trans- 



244 Revival Addresses 

gression, and the way of every one of them is 
hard. I tell you, you are branded. " Be sure 
your sin will find you out." You might as well 
take a brush and try to wipe out the sun and 
moon as to try to reverse God's word. The 
transgressor suffers because he feels his un worth- 
iness, and that feeling of unworthiness comes 
from the fact we know we are guilty. 

I have been criticized often because I de- 
clare openly that transgression makes cowards 
of all men. The reason I say it is because it is 
absolutely true. The first thing we notice after 
the creation of man is that transgression made 
a coward of him. As soon as he transgressed, he 
tried to hide away from God, among the trees 
of the garden; and transgressors have been 
hiding ever since. It is pitiful to see what cow- 
ards some transgressors are. Did you ever see 
or hear of a husband and father who forbade his 
wife inviting a preacher into his house ? That 
man is guilty, and hiding ; and say, man, you 
cannot tell me that a life like that is not hard, 
because I have tried it. I tried to leave the 
impression that I had no confidence in the 
preacher, but the facts were, I knew the preacher 
could have no confidence in me. 

" The wicked fleeth, when no man pursueth." 
It is our guilt that makes us dodge. If you 
want to see a sinner feel miserable, just let him 
fall into company with a dozen men and women 



"The Way of Transgressors is Hard" 245 

who are all righteous and talking on the subject 
of righteousness. I have been situated that 
way a few times in my life when I was in sin, 
and I can vouch for the fact a man suffers. 

When Mr. Hobbs and I were carrying on a 
meeting in Mt. Yernon one night, and it was 
the first night I was there, a young man came 
up to the stand when we had dismissed and said, 
" Brother Burke, your sermon did me lots of 
good." I said, " Yes, no doubt of that, because 
you are saved." " Yes, but how did you know 
I was saved ? " " Because a sinner never walks 
up at the end of a meeting and says such 
things ; he is always too anxious to get away." 

Don't forget my text, " The way of trans- 
gressors is hard." There are degrees of sin, but 
any man or woman without Jesus is a trans- 
gressor. I have seen many men and women in 
my life who were deep died in sin, who didn't 
seem to suffer much, but I was not surprised at 
it, because they were low bred, and not capable 
of feeling their disgraced condition, while I have 
seen others not guilty of half the disobedience 
who would spend sleepless nights and feverish 
days. I tell you, blood will always tell. That 
hog you hear Jesus speak of in human form is 
always showing up, and he shows up in women 
as well as men. " The wicked shall not live 
out half their days." It is not work that kills 
us but worry, and when sin overtakes us and 



246 Revival Addresses 

finds us out, the worry and suffering brings 
with it quick decay. You sometimes see a 
young man thirty years old whose face would 
indicate a man of forty-five. If only you knew 
the truth you would know he has spent much 
time in worry. Transgression is doing its awful 
work in that man. 

" The wages of sin is death. " Not only death 
to the soul, but death to the body. There is no 
peace for the wicked, and when you find no 
peace, you find no rest. The Lord explains that 
when He says, " Come unto Me, all ye that 
labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest. " Now I will ask you this — rest from what ? 
Does the Lord mean you are tired ? Yes, that 
is exactly what He means. He means you have 
spent sleepless nights. You have worried, and 
tossed from pillow to pillow, while your con- 
science stung you like a thousand scorpions. 

The objection some people have against com- 
ing to Christ is that it is a hard matter to serve 
the Lord ; but that is not what the Lord says 
about it. Hear Him : " Take My yoke upon 
you, and learn of Me ; for I am meek and 
lowly in heart ; and ye shall find rest unto 
your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My 
burden is light." 

Whenever I hear a man say it is a hard mat- 
ter to serve the Lord, I stop and wonder where 
he gets his Scripture for it. For all the peace, 



" The Way of Transgressors is Hard " 247 

joy, rest and sweet consolation we find in this 
life is found on the side of the Lord. The same 
Bible that teaches me rest and peace in the 
Lord, teaches me that " The way of transgress- 
ors is hard." And if you don't think it is so, just 
look around you. You see reeling down your 
street a drunkard ; you see walking behind him 
a refined Christian gentleman; you find out 
from the citizens in this town whom of the two 
men stand the higher, and thus decide which 
must be the hard and the easy yoke. 

Tou see over yonder a gambler. His life is 
so full of deceit and sin, he cannot look you in the 
face. You see standing not far from him a man 
about the same age, who is a Sunday-school 
superintendent. Find out from the men and 
women of your city the difference in their 
standing and draw your own conclusions as to 
whether or not " The way of transgressors is 
hard." 

You see down yonder the fallen woman. You 
see walking a few yards ahead of her a devoted 
Christian woman. Look at their standing, and 
then decide as to the truth of my text. 

You go to the jail and look through the bars 
at those imprisoned there, and I think you will 
readily make up your mind that " The way of 
transgressors is hard." Go to your state peni- 
tentiary and take a look at those in convict's 
clothes, and you will say, " The way of trans- 



248 Revival Addresses 

gressors is hard." Go to the scaffold when the 
black cap has been drawn and a young man is 
now about ready to be launched into eternity, 
and I think you will decide " The way of trans- 
gressors is hard." 

The moralist will naturally say, " I confess 
that the way of the class of transgressors you 
refer to is hard, but I am not guilty of that 
class of sins. I don't drink, I don't swear, I 
don't gamble, I don't steal, I am strictly 
moral." Still, my dear sir, you are a trans- 
gressor because you are rejecting Christ. You 
know the good of the Church, and the need of 
it, and you see others doing the good while you 
are lined up on the side of the enemies of the 
Church and its Christ. I tell you, man, you 
are bound to feel it, and at times you would 
give most anything if you had settled the 
question years ago. You know what you ought 
to do. You know you ought to come to Jesus, 
but you don't do it. You are put on the negative 
list, because of your failure to take a stand with 
the righteous, and that brings shame and worry. 

You absolutely cannot find in life any phase 
of disobedience that does not produce un- 
rest. Do you imagine for a moment that the 
young man whose language is vulgar, and 
whose habits are dissipated is as happy as that 
young man who has the courage to follow 
Jesus ? You often see two sons ; one obeys 






" The Way of Transgressors is Hard " 249 

the parents and has showered upon him daily 
their blessings. The other transgresses their 
laws, spends his evenings in revelry in some 
licensed saloon, and about one o'clock in the 
morning he steals his way to his room like a 
frightened hound, and in pulling off his shoes 
he sets them down as carefully as though they 
were loaded with dynamite ; then he rolls and 
tosses for an hour before sleep comes. The 
next morning, with an aching head, and red- 
dened eyes, and a hang head, sheepish look he 
shambles to the breakfast table and hears 
father return thanks. He looks across the table, 
sees his brother with eyes as bright as the 
morning star, and face as bright as the sun 
talking to sister, whose life is as pure as the 
snow. Do you think that young man is happy ? 
Ask him the question. How do you find trans- 
gression ? " I find the way of transgressors hard." 
You see sitting well back in this tabernacle a 
young lady. She loves worldly pleasures. She 
spends her evenings reading vicious novels, or 
at the card party, or the dance. "When she goes 
to church she sits back while other girls who 
belong to the church sit well forward or sing 
in the choir. There at times creeps over her 
an unrest that makes her face flush, and she 
becomes so restless that every word of sober 
truth spoken by the preacher bites at her heart 
like a serpent. That young lady knows " The 



250 Revival Addresses 

way of transgressors is hard." You listen to 
me ; I tell you, God's word is true. You cannot 
defeat it. If you transgress you must meet 
the consequences. There is no happiness for 
the man in rebellion against his Creator. 

Some men who are in sin imagine they are 
happy, because they flatter themselves that 
they are not playing the hypocrite like some 
they know, and try to find some consolation 
in the thought that, " I am what I am," but 
there comes to them the thought occasionally 
that should the call come to-day, they are lost ; 
and the thought of your soul being cast out 
forever will ring up my text, and you must 
confess this old Bible tells the truth. 

There are many aching hearts here to-night 
that you have never suspected. Their sins are 
haunting them, and as they walk the street 
they imagine the eyes of the righteous are upon 
them. When they laugh the very ring to it 
startles them. " Even in laughter the heart is 
sorrowful ; and the end of that mirth is heavi- 
ness." Behind many a hearty laugh, or ap- 
parently happy face, there is a heavy and ach- 
ing heart. There sits a man worried because 
he is profane; there sits another who is a 
drunkard ; there sits the gambler ; there is the 
liar, the thief and the swindler ; all have heavy 
hearts. There sits the man guilty of a secret 
sin. He is haunted with the thought, Does 



" The Way of Transgressors is Hard " 251 

anybody know it ? There sits a man with a 
letter in his pocket that he wouldn't have you 
see for ten thousand dollars. Our sins dance 
around us and seem to clap their hands and 
laugh at our misery. " The way of trans- 
gressors is hard." 

Most of the skeptics we meet are men of 
black lives and hard hearts. I was once talk- 
ing to a man in Oklahoma who claimed to be 
an infidel. I said to him, " Yes, Bill, if I were 
as contemptibly mean and vile as you, I would 
claim to be an infidel too. A man who has 
three living wives, all divorced, and trying to 
marry a fourth, I think is perfectly justified in 
claiming to be an infidel." 

I met another infidel some years ago in 
Texas. He told me he didn't believe a word 
that was in the Bible. That when a man died 
he died like an ox and that was the last of him. 
I said, " Yes, Harry, I don't blame you, for if I 
had destroyed the purity of two young girls' 
lives as you have done through promise of mar- 
riage, I would certainly do my best to believe 
the same thing." 

God help you black-hearted libertines who 
try your best to be infidels. Let me tell you 
men something, and you young men listen ; I 
think more of the man who will by stealth 
murder a girl for the ten dollar ring she wears 
than I do of the man who would by cunning 



252 Revival Addresses 

deceit rob her of her purity and blast her soul 
here, and for eternity. 

Listen, man ; if you are guilty of a fiendish 
crime like that, your dreams will be filled with 
the wails of a sinking soul. That soul will be 
the poor helpless creature who listened to your 
sugar-coated words, but behind every word was 
a deadly poison. God help her words and her 
tears to haunt you, man, until the very fires of 
hell gnaw and burn your conscience, until you 
can see yourself the mean, vile, most corrupt, 
and black-hearted scoundrel in this country. 
You may steal a man's goods and make restitu- 
tion, but you steal a woman's purity and you 
steal that which is dearer than life to her. 

Every time I look upon a poor fallen woman, 
I am led to say, " Somebody will smoke for 
that." I never go to a city but that I see fallen 
girls and women, and I know that very few 
women on earth are on the road of shame 
through choice. Somebody got their confidence, 
and betrayed them. God wake up the liber- 
tines. Every state ought to make it a capital 
offense to destroy a woman's purity. There 
should be no age of consent. Hell for the lib- 
ertine here, and hell hereafter. After the judg- 
ment your wails will come too late. You can 
scream, sir, until the very vaults of the lost world 
will echo and reecho for help, but too late ! too 
late ! 



" The Way of Transgressors is Hard " 253 

Man, hear me : " The way of transgressors 
is hard," but, thank God, He can hear your 
prayer of repentance to-night, and you may 
come and find rest, and go to that wronged girl 
and tell her you will be her friend if all the 
earth forsake her. 

A man may flatter himself that it is possible 
for him to transgress the laws of his country 
and then by dodging escape the penalty ; but 
when you transgress the law and realize your 
condition fully you imagine every officer you 
meet is after you, and if you could then go to 
the judge and confess your crime, you would 
gladly promise never to violate another statutory 
law, and no doubt you would mean it and 
would ever after be a good citizen. But this 
judge cannot pardon. He tells you that you 
must be tried by twelve competent jurors. 
It is different when you transgress the laws 
of God and you feel your guilt. The Holy 
Spirit is then seeking you and entreating you 
and pointing out the way until you find no rest 
day or night. " Your sins are ever before you." 
Listen ; thank God, you can go to the Judge of 
all judges ; you can go to the divine Saviour 
and confess your sins and tell Him that by His 
grace and help you will sin no more. That 
Judge doesn't need twelve jurors to try your case, 
but He forgives and " blots out your sins, and 
remembers them against you no more forever." 



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